The Fault In Human Kind
by FlowerGirly
Summary: Chp5: Just when Guan Ping assumed he got away, and begin's to enjoy his time with Xing,Suo and Yinping, he finds himself in a 28 day disciplinary detention & there he bumps into an old friend. Along the way he decides work harder to gain YuJin's trust and be fit to join team Alpha. Modernverse- DunXJin,DunXPing
1. How It All Goes Wrong

**Authors note: THIS STORY WILL BE CONTINUED! It's only been posted recently. ^_^**

 **There is constant time skips and rewinds, so the plot doesn't work in chronological order**

 **Genre: Adventure/War/Modernverse/Angst/Hurtncomfort/Romance**

 **Main Characters: Guan Ping, Xiahou Dun, and Yu Jin**

 **Secondary: Gan Ning, Li Dian, Zhang He, Lu Lingqi, Zhen Ji, Cao Pi, Ma Chao, Fa Zheng, Guan Suo, Guan Yinping, Guan Yu, Guan Xing, Zhong Hui, Ma** **Dai, Huang Gai, Sun Jian, Zhang Jiao, Deng Ai, Huang Zhong, Dong Zhuo**

 **Disclaimer: I proudly own nothing but my pants ^-^**

 **ENJOY!**

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Chapter 1: How It All Goes Wrong

* * *

 _In the year 2053 - Central African Republic_

* * *

Food shortages...

"Hand me the notebook" Yu Jin ordered. Guan Ping complied, reaching for a pencil in his pocket and handing that over too. The older man examined the pages for a few seconds, displeased with the outcome, his face expression remained unchanged as he wore his usual unamused look, along with the furrowed brows that somehow always made him look angry even when he wasn't. In addition to the curve of his lips that barely twitched or most likely faced down, Guan Ping hadn't gotten used to Yu Jin's stern face expression and he often avoided to meet the Marshal's gaze.

"Let's keep a record of what we've got" He finally spoke, ushering for Guan Ping to bring out the remains of food. As usual even in the most distressing of moments Yu Jin had to keep on top of his organization and reacted calmly.

Guan Ping began pulling the food out of the backpack "two cans of beans... four cans of soup... a pack of crackers, and another of dried fruit... a loaf of bread... and six apples"

Yu Jin scribbled away into the notepad, there was a slight hint of nervousness in the way he held his pencil, making simple mistakes as his mind wasn't really focused. There was no way any of that food was going to last longer than a day, or two if they were being really stingy. His eyes darted from side to side with his head sunk into the notebook.

Only to have his thought patterns being disturbed by Dun. "five" He corrected. "Five apples..." The one eyed man stated, as he reached for the pile and grabbed one, walking away casually.

Guan Ping exchanged glances, his face turning to Dun and then back to Yu Jin but there was no reaction. Yu Jin looked back at the notebook, noticing he had written 'cans of crackers'. Scribbling it out he corrected it to '1 pack of crackers' and closed the notebook. Guan Ping awaited any further orders patiently, but there were none. Yu Jin placed the notebook into Guan Ping's lap and walked away "Pack it all up" He told him.

Guan Ping blinked observing the book for a second, Yu Jin had been acting strange for a while now, or maybe it was just the stressors of work that had gotten to him. But it was still unusual for the Marshal, and it was evident that something was clouding his mind.

Guan Ping turned to observe the activity in the room. Dun was sat cross legged against a wall, nibbling away at his apple without a care in the world. As for Yu Jin, he hated wasting time and preferred to be more productive, reaching to a heavier backpack he pulled out a laptop. Guan Ping sighed, slowly placing the items into the bag neatly to create as much space as possible, he pulled out a small first aid kit and laid it aside. Packing everything in he closed the bag and placed it on the side, struggling to get on to his feet, he grabbed the first aid box and limped his way till he reached the door.

Just as he reached outside he used the wall as support to aid him to sit down without bending his legs further. Letting out a small groan of pain, he tightly gripped his lower inner thigh, hoping it would seize the pain. The blood had already soaked through his trousers and a big splodge of blood was evident on the higher part of his right leg. It had to be cleaned or there could be a risk of infection.

Opening the first aid kit he examined what he had available, letting out a sigh of relief when his eyes were set on a needle and some surgical thread, it was sure to be painful, but when he last looked, upon acquiring the injury, the wound showed ripped tissue which had to be put back together. Wiping his face with his sleeve as he felt his body heat up he reached to pull out an antiseptic wipe only to notice Xiahou Dun standing at the door way. Ping didn't take much time to wonder how long he had been standing there, but quickly resumed what he was doing, as he had better things to worry about.

Xiahou Dun strolled over, squatting down in front of Ping, he awaited till the youth turned with a questioning face expression to what he wanted. Upon receiving that reaction, he placed his bum down onto the ground, sitting down with his legs stretched open, he moved closer, facing Ping, he carefully brought the youth's legs over his own. Ping had already began to feel the butterflies in his stomach, and the uncomfortable nervousness caused by the close contact. Dun reached for the kit, placing it in the small gap left between them. Tossing through the equipment, he pulled out a bottle of hydrogen peroxide along with some cotton.

"Roll up your trousers" He spoke gently. Guan Ping avoided his gaze, swallowing a lump in his throat, he tried to pull his leg back slowly to reach.

Reading his facial expression, Dun took his leg slowly, bending it trying to cause less pain. He tried to help him, but as the combats he wore were cuffed from the bottom it was impossible to roll them further past his knee. Dun let out a sigh before rolling it back, and resting Ping's leg down. He glanced back at Guan Ping, maybe to see if he had his permission. But Ping continued to look away, and as if it wasn't obvious how he was avoiding him even when they were that close. Dun slowly reached for Ping's zipper, pulling it down, and then reaching for his button. Showing no sign asking him to stop, he saw it as a sign to continue, moving away to pull back his trousers, he now adjusted himself so that was seated side wards to face the injured leg, as he made himself comfortable between Guan Ping's legs. Guan Ping had completely turned his face the other way to hide his embarrassment, but Dun was very casual about it, he cleaned up the wound and sterilised it using the hydrogen peroxide.

Guan Ping was very quiet, only letting out a few small whimpers of pain, but it wasn't till the stitching began that he couldn't keep it in.

"Don't move" Xiahou Dun commanded.

Guan Ping clenched to the man's arm tightly, as he felt the sharp pain through his leg muscles, his whole leg felt paralyzed with the hard suture thread ripping through his skin. Dun waited for a few minutes until Ping's grip on his arm loosened a little, but it returned as soon as he pierced through the skin again. Ping placed his head against Dun's shoulder facing the opposite direction, as he let out another groan of pain.

"Listen, it has to be done, just hold on for a little longer, I'll try to be as quick as I can" Dun tried to reassure him. It would have helped if they had access to an anaesthetic, Dun wasn't no professional surgeon, and it was sure to leave a scar but it would have to do for the time being.

A few more minutes of torture had passed until it was finally over. Wiping the area clean one last time, he packed the equipment back into the box and closed it.

Turning to the youth that was still clinging onto him tightly, with his head rested on his shoulder. Dun gave him a light nudge, Ping had been shaking tremendously, Dun was able to feel him trembling against him. "Hey listen, we're done now" He told him, hoping for him to loosen his tight grip on him, but Guan Ping remained shaking in silence. Dun sighed, slowly pulling himself away, and soon Ping had just let go. Dusting himself off for sitting on the ground, he reached for Ping's trousers and helped him wear them again. Ping's body was feverish and hot all over, Dun studied his face, only to make out that he was crying. Bending down and moving up closer to him, he pulled him closer to his chest and wrapped his arms around him warmly.

Guan Ping felt ashamed of himself for crying, but the warmth of Dun's embrace made him feel safe and reassured. He felt a strange flow of emotions, pain, anger, guilt. Guilt because he knew his feelings weren't being returned, and he hated Dun for it, he hated him for being so kind and caring, he hated how he looked out for him.

Pulling back, Dun cupped his chin in his hand lifting his head a little to ensure their eyes met. He wiped Ping's tears, and leaned in leaving an inch gap between their lips, gazing into Ping's dark grey eyes for a few seconds, he closed the gap as he locked lips with him. Though Guan Ping hadn't resisted the way he usually did, he still showed no reaction to the other's actions, though allowing him to kiss him might have said enough.

"Your lips are dry..." Dun pointed out, once he pulled back.

"That's because I'm dehydrated..." Guan Ping explained quietly.

Dun leaned in for another, not satisfied with the first one, and used his other hand to adjust Ping's head to allow himself more access. Though Dun had kissed him many times before, every time felt like the first, and with every first came the feelings of nostalgia, memories flashed through his head like they were being played there and now. Hurtful memories. Hurtful because Dun had never said anything, the only time he felt loved was when he kissed him, it was the only action enough to speak more than three words. But even then he had doubts, doubts and anger that he couldn't stop himself from having those feelings towards him, many times he wished he could rip out his heart and press it hard till it stopped feeling, but wouldn't that also stop it from beating?

Love's a strange thing.

It hurt Ping more because he did it every time, he made him feel loved then he left again. It was the cruellest thing you could do to somebody, and yet Guan Ping was still attached as ever, its almost like he couldn't find something to kill himself with so he loved Dun, and the problem with that is he was like poison. And you know what's worst about poison, it kills you slowly.

Its like a constant game of tug of war, except no one was winning. Dun's presence constantly left him unfocused, he felt as though he was constantly messing with his head.

Ping slowly slipped his hand on Dun's chest, and just as he told himself that would be enough for now, he pushed him back.

"I almost thought you actually wanted to kiss me" Dun sounded disappointed.

"Your lips are dry..." Guan Ping spoke randomly.

"That's because I'm hungry" He explained, slightly annoyed how Ping changed the subject, but it was rather strange how he would expect so much of him without giving anything in return. It was utterly selfish to think that way.

"Are you two done or should I come back in an hour?" Yu Jin snapped, sounding rather angry how they could find the time to be doing things like that in the middle of nowhere, funnily without a sign of jealousy.

Xiahou Dun stood up quickly, feeling a little awkward that Yu Jin had seen them like that.

"Go make yourself useful" Yu Jin handed him what looked like a small satellite. "Climb the roof and see if you can get it working, I've been trying to contact headquarters but there's no signal" He explained, his tone of voice altering back to calm.

Without a word Dun made his way up onto the roof. Yu Jin strolled over to Ping, reaching out a hand to assist him, and just as Guan Ping took it, he hauled him up without any consideration of his injury. Guan Ping bit his bottom lip to not let out a sound.

"Go in there, I've got the laptop on, let us know if it receives any signal" he instructed and quickly making his way up to where Dun was.

Guan Ping limped his way back into the small house where the laptop was. The area they were in was short of electricity supply, and though Yu Jin had brought a few spare batteries, they were on their last one now, and if that ran out it would be close to impossible for HQ to locate them, and with the current circumstances, i.e the food shortage, they weren't going to last very long.

"How's his leg?" Yu Jin asked.

"It's pretty bad..." Xiahou Dun sighed.

"If we could get contact-" Yu Jin paused before finishing off his sentence, his narrow eyes widening in surprise. "What's that noise?"

Xiahou Dun looked around, his hands tightly gripped onto the satellite signal finder. "Sounds like a heavy vehicle" He final came down with a conclusion.

"A Tank!" Yu Jin exclaimed. Without further confirmation he ran, taking a big jump down from the roof, Dun followed him, only being more careful when he reached the ground.

"We need to get moving!" He rushed to pack their equipment.

Ping looked around a little lost, and worried as to what might have happened.

"Come on, there's no time to talk, there's a tank close by, we need to move quickly before we get blown to pieces" Yu Jin explained as he finished up the packing.

Guan Ping watched the two get ready to leave, a disheartened look in his eyes, there was no way he could get far with an injured leg, and the way the two acted was like nothing had happened.

"Ping come on..." Xiahou Dun paced over to him, handing him his back pack.

Ping put it on slowly awaiting for both the men to say something but it seemed to take a while.

The one eyed man reloaded a hand pistol and handed it over to Ping, but just before he could take it Yu Jin interrupted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He snapped, quickly snatching the gun out of his hand. "He doesn't carry a gun." He told Dun, placing it into the belt of his trousers.

Guan Ping's eyes darted between his superiors, if Yu Jin had made an order there was no room for argument. Unless you're Dun of course.

"He needs something to protect himself with" Xiahou Dun explained sounding frustrated with how unreasonable Yu Jin was being.

"Look I think its enough that we're baby sitting here, if I wanted to shoot myself in the leg I would have done it myself" Yu Jin's voice began to raise.

"I know how to hold a gun" Guan Ping said quietly.

"Oh is that why your leg's cut open?" Yu Jin asked sarcastically.

"Well I didn't purposely do it..." Guan Ping argued.

And just then Yu Jin had snapped, but Xiahou Dun came in between just before the older man could lash out on him. "Marshal calm down..." Dun pleaded.

Yu Jin walked away letting out a loud huff. "Maybe you should have stitched up his mouth too" he addressed Dun irritably. Picking up his backpack, he turned back to the two. "The army's not cut out for everyone, I think you would have done your father a favour if you stuck with the farming life, he's getting too old to be raking soil every morning, you'd probably be of more use to him"

Guan Ping clenched his fist in anger, he was infuriated that the commander had to bring up his father in all of this.

"Let's get moving..." Yu Jin ordered.

"If joining the military meant I was going to get a second dad I would have stayed at home" Guan Ping snarled.

Yu Jin turned around both his eyebrows raised in surprise at how Ping dared to answer him back. "What did you just say?" He asked.

"Commander let it go..." Xiahou Dun requested, holding his arms out to protect Ping from his wrath. Yu Jin ignored the one eyed man and tried to reach Ping who was now trying to hide behind Dun. "Yu Jin" Dun struggled to block him off.

"No no, I want him to repeat what he just said, move" He spoke softly, his calm tone clearly expressing the opposite of calmness.

"Yu Jin, what you say goes, let it go" Dun pleaded further.

"If he's a man, he'll repeat what he just said to my face, I don't like mumbling" Yu Jin explained.

Guan Ping got onto his knees, placing his fist to to his palm. "I'm sorry commander" Guan Ping closed his eyes in fear.

Xiahou Dun's mouth fell open, and just then Yu Jin had pushed him out the way. He held his breath and clenched his fist to hold back the urge to pummel Ping's face into the ground.

Ping opened a eye to check if he was safe yet, and just then he felt Yu Jin's hand grab his collar hauling him up to his feet. "In front of me, where I can see you!" He ordered.

Ping began to walk unsteadily and from there it was clear the day was going to be long. Dun followed quietly.

* * *

A few more hours had past but they hadn't gotten very far, Jin and Dun stuck to Ping's pace, aiding him to walk as they went along. The heatwave didn't help either, they were getting cooked by the burning sun.

Guan Ping leaned against a wall breathing heavily. "I can't go any further" He declared.

"We have to keep going" Yu Jin reminded but he also had little will to try and was both exhausted, hungry and dehydrated like the other two.

"Heads down!" Xiahou Dun ordered.

Yu Jin got down quickly, and pulled Ping with him.

"There's a sniper in the distance" He explained. "Do I take him out?" He asked, readying his weapon.

"No." Yu Jin said calmly, trying to think of a better strategy. He peeked his head, eyes squinting to spot his target and quickly docked when he saw him. "Sharp eyes" He praised.

"You can say eye" Dun said annoyed, causing Yu Jin and Ping both to smile, but Yu Jin smile's disappeared in a second, and Ping's followed when Yu Jin looked at him, and his gaze fell to the ground.

"There's no silencer on your sniper, who knows how many more of them are close by, that's going to blow are cover" Yu Jin explained.

"We're surrounded, the tank from behind and snipers from the front" Xiahou Dun pointed out. "If there's a sniper, surely that's a watch post, we're close to enemy territory"

"I know..." Yu Jin replied letting off a sigh. "Let's set camp in one of the abandoned houses, that's all we can do for now"

Xiahou Dun didn't look very pleased with the decision but there wasn't much else they could do. "Yes sir" He replied.

The three made their way into an empty building, and while Ping and Dun took the chance to lay on the floor for some rest, Yu Jin was quick to pull out his laptop to get to work.

Ping placed his head on his back pack, his whole body was burning with fever, the walking hadn't really helped his injury either and he had applied too much pressure to it forcing himself to walk. His body felt weak with the lack of food, it was no way his immune system was going to fight off anything in that state.

Noticing his loud breathing, Xiahou Dun crawled over to him. "Are you alright?" He spoke softly.

Guan Ping nodded, looking back at him with half lidded eyes. Dun placed his hand on Ping's forehead to check his temperature. "Woah, you're burning with fever" He spoke worriedly.

Upon hearing that Yu Jin turned to look at them, but then resumed to bury himself into his work.

"I feel cold..." Ping began to shake tremendously.

"It's the fever"

"Cover me please.." Guan Ping requested.

"No, your body needs to cool down, here" Dun helped him pull his top over his head, tending to his leg, he used Ping's shirt to wrap it tightly around his leg to lessen the pain, but it was clear that that hadn't made a big difference, in fact Ping's face looked pale and drained from colour, and his body was covered in sweat. Dun watched him helplessly, unsure of what to do, he quickly reached for their food supply, pulling it out he broke the loaf of bread into two.

"Here" The one eyed man, helped him to sit up a little, and fed him the bread slowly, though it took some time, he gave him a bit of dried fruit and tomato soup also, and then he left him to try and catch some sleep.

Pacing over to Yu Jin with what was left of the food, he placed a plate of soup and what was left of the bread next to his commander. "Here have something to eat" He suggested.

"Not now..." Yu Jin carried on to type away on his laptop, but then his belly sounded a loud rumble.

Xiahou Dun lowered the laptop screen down a little. "Yu Jin eat" He sighed.

"Commander Yu Jin" The taller man corrected him, before pushing the screen down completely. He reached for the soup and bread and was quick to dive in, clearly he was starving.

"Yes sir" Xiahou Dun said sarcastically, and then sat beside him and ate also.

"This is all your fault..." Yu Jin spoke quietly as if he didn't mean to wake Ping.

Xiahou Dun looked up from his plate, wondering as to what he was referring to. "Come again?" The one eyed man questioned.

"You brought him here, if anything happens to him it's going to be your fault" He explained.

Xiahou Dun looked back to the shaking youth which was now sound asleep, Yu Jin was right in a way, and that was the reason he didn't want him to be with them all along.

"You can try trusting him more you know" Dun spoke randomly resuming to dig into his food.

"Trusting him with what exactly? He's lack of experience will get us all killed" Yu Jin snapped.

"He's not as useless as you think he is" Xiahou Dun tried to defend him.

"I'm not trying to find out, this is the last time he comes with me anywhere, and once we return to HQ I'm asking for replacement, if they refuse then it's just me and you, he's staying in the camp" Yu Jin glared at Dun to confirm that he had made himself clear.

Xiahou Dun nodded without saying much else.

Once they were done, Yu Jin had gone back to tapping away on his laptop, just before going to sleep Dun returned to him, the taller man looked at him and then turned back to his screen, wondering why he was standing over his head. Dun knelt down on to the floor, leaning close just enough for his nose to brush of Yu Jin's defined cheekbone, he gave him a slow soft peck on the cheek, the delayed action had made Yu Jin feel it intensely, and just as Dun walked away, Yu Jin removed his hands of the keyboard, blinking a few times, he turned to Dun who was now preparing himself for sleep, he adjusted his backpack to use as a pillow and laid out his blanket and dipped inside.

Yu Jin turned his head back and forth from the screen and back to Dun several times unsure of how to feel about the kiss, especially that he couldn't help but to think of it as a good night kiss, he was more surprised as he wasn't really expecting it. Shaking his head, he told himself to focus and returned to typing away on his laptop.

Several hours had passed and the sun was beginning to rise, the sleepless Yu Jin got off his laptop to reach for a couple of crackers, hoping a little food might ease away the headache caused by the lack of sleep, only to notice how badly Ping was shaking, watching him for a few seconds his face expressed no emotion, but his intentions were shown enough through his actions. Pulling out a blanket from his bag, he covered the youth carefully trying not to wake him in the process.

Feeling suffocated from exhaustion and overworking he strolled over to one of the windows to catch some fresh air pulling down the collar of his tight fitted shirt he closed his eyes and took a deep breath trying to take in the freshness of the air, except there was none, the air smelt of hydraulic fluids, diesel fuel and scattered gunpowder, the metallic smell of blood and the stench of rotting bodies belonging to dead villagers, the sun had caused the smell to worsen.

Letting off a sigh he walked away from the window wishing they would leave this place soon, it's a strange feeling to miss the air, to be deprived of breathing freely without being constantly reminded of what you're surrounded by. The Central African Republic was now a battle ground, lifeless and filled with fear and death.

The morning had come by and the heat wave had returned, today was set to be unproductive.

Yu Jin lifted his shirt over his head; irritated by the heat he brushed his bangs away from his face. Guan Ping laid motionlessly, his hand hanging out as though he surrendered to his fate. Xiahou Dun on the other hand tried to kill off time by finding himself something to do, he refilled their weapons with ammo, and cleaned them so that they were ready to use.

"I've managed to contact HQ, captain Huang Gai should be here with a hellcat by morning" Yu Jin informed.

"Morning?" Xiahou Dun asked aggravated, "We'll be dead by then"

"I only just managed to catch a signal, there's not much we can do, we'll have to wait" He sighed.

Xiahou Dun huffed as he placed a silencer on his hand gun.

As for Guan Ping the news was good enough to give him hope.

Yu Jin walked out, it was clear he was extremely irritated and stressed, and both the heat and lack of sleep was adding to his cranky mood.

Xiahou Dun laid down the gun and followed him out. "Are you alright?" the one eyed man asked, not able to take his eyes of his partner's muscular build.

Yu Jin sighed, walking away he paused, placing his hands on his hips. He was clearly getting restless.

"You're really tired, you should get some rest" Dun suggested.

Letting off another sigh he turned back to Dun, pausing for a moment, he walked over to him resting his head onto Dun's shoulder, he dug his face into his neck. "Just for a little while" Yu Jin spoke quietly.

Xiahou Dun moved his arms to wrap them around him, a little unsure at first but then he pulled him closer allowing himself to enjoy the closeness, he couldn't keep his hands off, he let one of his hands caress the taller man's soft skin, Yu Jin had a perfect clear face, and usually kept his facial hair neat, unlike Dun who had manlier features, Yu Jin had a well kept beard line making his perfectly defined jaw line more evident. But whatever manly characteristics he was lacking in facial features he made up for in terms of physical strength. He had a strong muscular build, and rather toned hips for a man, which Dun was allowed to admire back in the days.

Dun on the other hand wasn't that far behind him only a few inches shorter, the top of Dun's head reached Jin's eyebrows. Similarly he was also built his muscles beautifully outlined by his tightly fitted shirt, Dun however had more of round almond shaped eyes, while Yu Jin had more of deep set eyes which were rather narrow causing him to look chinky when he smiled but that was a rare expression to see on his face. Dun's cheekbones were more vivid, and faultlessly sculpted, along with his gruff beard, that added to his manliness.

Guan Ping was a completely a different story, only 5'8 in height (Dun is 6'2 and Jin is 6'3)he wasn't very built in terms of physique and had just about enough muscle to cover up his thinness. Though he didn't have much for facial hair, he still had a fairly chiselled jawline, with hollow cheeks, his face shaped rectangular, with thick dark eyebrows which the end of was covered by his signature headband that he wore everywhere.

Guan Ping's eyes were almond shaped too, only drawn back sharply at the end. He had thick but short lashes outlining his eyes as though he was wearing eyeliner, and looked rather manly for his age, he usually held a soulful gaze his eyes appearing cold or steely, hiding what seems to be an inner sadness, they were stormy grey in colour conveying a haunting look expressing his inner conflicts, Guan Ping doesn't speak much of how he feels but wishes for someone to understand without him needing to, unlike Yu Jin who's eyes seem sharp and cold like the rest of his facial features, and though he wasn't angry or even frowning his relaxed expression was enough to frighten people away.

A few moments had passed and Yu Jin seemed to find comfort in being locked in his partners embrace and didn't show any signs of having enough. Dun caressed his back gently slipping one hand into his hair, he placed a soft kiss on the tender skin of his neck.

Yu Jin finally reacted, wrapping his muscular arms around Dun's waist, Xiahou Dun felt content for a while with the other's big arms holding him tightly, but it didn't last long, Yu Jin pulled back once he decided he had enough, or maybe he hadn't and was actually yearning for more but forced himself to resist the other's touch. Just before he could retreat back into the house Dun pinned him to the wall, finding it hard to resist any further Yu Jin grabbed Dun's belt pulling him closer he stole a kiss from the one eyed man's lips, Dun followed with a harder one and soon both the men's hands were all over one another, Yu Jin sucked on Dun's bottom lip passionately, and the two ate away at each other hungry from more, getting a little too rough, Jin slipped his hands into Dun's shirt his cold hands reaching for Dun's lower back, the action caused him to jump, causing both the men to take a tumble together. Xiahou Dun bit his bottom lip which was followed by a smirk followed by a small chuckle, Yu Jin laid under him staring at him blankly resisting the urge to laugh, the curve of his lips raised for a change his eyes getting chinkier, Xiahou Dun's smile became wider a slight dimple appearing on his right cheek, he was pleased to see the other smile for a change.

"You look like shit, you know that right" Yu Jin joked attempting to stop smiling, he shoved his hand in his face to move him, to sit up but that only caused Dun to laugh more.

"You really need to look at yourself in the mirror" Xiahou Dun teased, though he didn't really mean it, as he found Yu Jin rather charming when he smiled.

Yu Jin pulled him by the collar closer taking another long and intimate kiss before getting up to his feet, Dun followed and just before he could lean for another, Yu Jin put his hands out onto his chest pushing him back.

Xiahou Dun let out a loud sigh. "Why do you always do that?"

"Do what? Dun you're covered in sweat, I'm covered in sweat, we're starved and in the middle of nowhere, now's not the time to have sex" Yu Jin spoke openly, his tone of voice less serious than the usual.

"That's not what I meant…" Dun sighed.

"Go look after your son there, he needs you more than me, or find yourself something to do" Yu Jin returned to his usual self.

"Don't call him that" Xiahou Dun sounded angrier than he should have, it was awkward for him to think of him that way.

"Whatever" Yu Jin shrugged his shoulders walking away from the man.

Xiahou Dun walked back in taking one of the guns. "I'll be going to see the villagers, if they're willing to give us any food" He declared an annoyed expression on his face. He didn't leave much time for the other two to react before heading out.

Guan Ping folded his arms before turning himself to face the other way. "Marshal…" His voice sounded quiet and weak.

Yu Jin walked over to him, sitting down with his legs crossed, probably not an act of sympathy coming from Yu Jin, only ready to hear his last will if he wasn't going to make it.

"Please don't discharge me once we return to camp" Guan Ping began

Yu Jin turned his head as though he already knew where this was going.

"I promise I'll train hard, I'll do my best, I'll do everything you ask of me" Guan Ping attempted to persuade the commander but it had looked like he had already made his mind and wasn't planning to change it, no pair of puppy eyes would work anyway and Ping hadn't even tried.

Yu Jin shot up, walking away with no response, Guan Ping felt disheartened, it was a terrible feeling to know that even your best wasn't going to be good enough, but that wasn't the issue here, he wasn't given the chance to begin with, and maybe accompanying experienced soldiers on a top secret mission was the wrong job to be taken on being the first time Ping had left the military camp and hasn't even shot a human before. But it had been firstly Dun's fault for choosing to bring him, and Yu Jin's second to trust him to bring someone useful, but yet again Dun had never let him down before, so this was a first.

Xiahou Dun had returned in the evening, not much in his hands but at least some fresh water, and some fruit.

The other two were relieved to see him but this wasn't very clear on Ping's face. "Here" He handed Yu Jin the fruit and quickly made his way to Ping, helping him to sit up, he gave him a little water. "Take it easy" Dun suggested as Ping gulped down the water. "Hang in there, you're gonna make it" He reassured him, before helping him to lay his head back.

"What is this?" Yu Jin questioned shaking the food.

"I don't know some kind of fruit… It's all they have" His tone of voice quietened. "It's funny how we're here begging them for food when they barely have anything for themselves"

The night was long, and the three decide to catch some rest, the night was rather cold, and both Dun and Jin had covered the sick Guan Ping with their blankets and were freezing now, but Dun had still somehow found a way to fall asleep, and though Yu Jin was extremely tired, he was unable to sleep, and spent most of the night tossing and turning restlessly, he was now beginning to assume these conditions may have led to him developing insomnia…

* * *

Morning had come, and Yu Jin had almost fallen asleep, he was usually a light sleeper, Dun's snoring plus Ping's heavy breathing hadn't helped either. He jumped when he heard a loud sound of something approaching, the hellcat! Of course it would be the hellcat.

"Dun, Ping, wake up!" Yu Jin shook them both excitedly; finally they were getting out of this. Xiahou Dun jumped up, rushing to pack their stuff once he heard the sound. Ping attempted to get up but wasn't able to even sit up.

"Here, take the bags" Yu Jin handed the luggage to Dun, bending over; he slipped his hands under Ping, picking him up. Guan Ping didn't move much and looked rather lifeless, he depended on the other two to deliver him to safety from there; he closed his eyes allowing his head to rest against Yu Jin's big and warm chest.

"Boy I've never been happier to see you commodore Huang Gai" Xiahou Dun saluted.

"Happy to help Colonel" Huang Gai reached for the bags aiding Dun, and as soon as they were on, he held his hand out helping him to get on. "Oh boy, he doesn't look too good" He pointed out once seeing Yu Jin come forward with Ping in his arms. Dun and Gai pulled him on and soon Yu Jin was on too and from there they left the Central African Republic…

* * *

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 **Let me know what you think of the characters, setting, and what's going on, points to improve and what you want to see more of in the reviews!**

 **Chapter 2 is a time skip to two years later, the introduction to team Alpha.**

 **Till next time ^-^ Ciao!**


	2. Introducing Team Alpha

**Author's note: I do apologize about the length of this chapter, it ended up being really long and splitting it over didn't have the same effect, I do hope you mustard jars enjoy it ^.^**

* * *

Chapter 2: Introducing Team Alpha

* * *

 _2 years later…_

 _In the year 2055 – Sonora, Northwest of Mexico_

* * *

Gan Ning stared at the grey blonde haired girl, his gaze gradually lowering to her bust. With a calm angel like expression she gazed at the man with an uninterested glare, and just when he didn't expect it she grabbed him from the neck her finger's digging into his skin viscously, her clasp was strong enough to almost strangle him with the use of just the one hand and the angel like expression had completely changed to a more scarier one.

"Tight grip you got there…" Gan Ning gulped, struggling to speak with her hand around him.

"Tight enough to break your neck" She snarled pushing him back against the wall, she released him and walked away disgustedly, she despised men who looked at women as mere objects, she was part of the army after all and wasn't here to flaunt what she had and was prepared to put any man back in his place if he dared to look down on her.

Gan Ning rubbed his neck to ease the pain, but by the looks of things, that wasn't enough to teach him a lesson, in fact now he was even more interested in her and found it attractive how she was able to take care of herself. He smirked his usual cheeky grin but that quickly faded when Yu Jin entered the room, and the entire officer cadet's were quick to form a line and salute their commander.

Yu Jin paced past the line of soldiers observing each one of them. Amongst the officers were Zhong Hui, Fa Zheng, Ma Dai, Zhen Ji, Li Dian, Gan Ning and Lu Lingqi of course. Partly pleased with the new faces, after taking a long pause he declared "You will all be forming team alpha". Originally the plan was to bring fourth five of Yu Jin's elite unit soldiers, and four from Dun's faction but in the absence of Yu Jin's elite officer Cao Pi who was sent on a scout mission Zhen Ji was to take his place for this mission. Stopping once he reached Dun who was standing at the end of the line, Yu Jin's head shot to the left when he noticed Ping among the officer cadet's, he hadn't noticed him earlier since he was hidden by the tall Ma Dai. Letting out an annoyed grunt he grabbed Ping in a headlock, and pulled him towards Xiahou Dun who was now avoiding the commander's gaze.

"What's he doing here?" Yu Jin whispered threateningly.

"Sir… You're strangling me" Guan Ping mumbled, but was silenced with Yu Jin's grip tightening, Ping held the commander's arm tightly trying to move it away to catch his breath, but even the use of two hands did not help.

The rest of the soldiers exchanged glances terrified and confused of what was going on.

"Commander just give him-" Xiahou Dun tried to defend Ping, but Yu Jin wasn't ready to hear it, releasing him suddenly, he pushed him back to where he was standing earlier. Ping felt his neck as he tried to get over the humiliation in front of the rest of his comrades. By the looks of things seeing Guan Ping was already enough to put him in a bad mood, and that was for two reasons, because he couldn't trust him to keep himself alive and second he was bound to come in the way. In Dun's way to be exact, Dun's fondness of him had led to many reckless actions before, and though Yu Jin didn't like to admit it much, he really cared about Dun.

It was bad enough that team alpha was constructed by a bunch of rookie soldiers who had barely killed before, it had never happened previously, but due to a series of unfortunate events Yu Jin was forced to form a group using the present officer cadet's, the pressure of it irritated him, and though he had handpicked his own officers, Zhong Hui, Lu Lungqi, Fa Zheng and Ma Dai, after seeing Guan Ping among Dun's choices he was beginning to question whether he could rely on the rest of them.

Pacing over to Zhen Ji, Yu Jin grabbed her arms and moved her to stand next to Lu Lingqi. "You… Go stand at the back" He ushered for Li Dian to move. "You two ladies have one simple task to fulfil as long as you're here and part of this army…don't get raped" He remarked his tone sounding sarcastic and humiliating.

Zhen Ji's mouth almost dropped open at the harassment, who would have known that commander Yu Jin was sexist like that, it probably gave the soldiers more of a reason to hate him npw, but Lu Lingqi handled it well, saluting she affirmed "We won't sir" Her voice was loud and clear with a slight ring at the end, she was already standing out from the other officer cadet's though they hadn't even began yet.

Yu Jin let out a sigh of relief in his mind, that's exactly how he liked his soldiers, obeying and respectful, he's favourites were the ones who could take anything he'd throw at them no matter how rude or distasteful it was, and at this moment in time to him Lu Lingqi was more of a man than the rest of them.

Yu Jin turned his head to where Gan Ning and Li Dian were. "Something funny?" He asked. The two were shocked how he heard them chuckling immaturely, but that was the thing with Yu Jin, he wouldn't miss a thing. However luckily for them he chose to ignore and let things pass.

"There's one simple rule you're all going to follow… No one gets left behind" Both Dun and Ping exchanged glances unfamiliar with the rule, that wasn't the rule in the army, the rule was usually every man for himself, or you mess up you're on your own. But maybe it was Yu Jin's attempt at assuring the rookie soldiers that they'll be protected being there first mission, he wanted to them to trust one another to have each other's backs, for at least this mission needed a lot of cooperation due to their insufficient numbers. "We're going to split into three groups, A, B and C"

"Group A will be Zhong Hui and Lingqi… I'll trust you two on this one, we as an organisation work for the country, team alpha is a CIA association however, so we've got to gather evidence as well as carry out top secret missions, here we'll be dealing with a cannibalistic group, who are using a soap factory to cover up their underground business, we have little information on what really goes on in there however" Yu Jin carried on to explain while the officer cadet's listened attentively, as well as excitement the soldiers felt nervous about their first mission, by the look on Dun's face it was his first time hearing the information too. Yu Jin continued " group A, you're going to go in and take a quick film of what's happening in there, you don't spend more than 15 minutes in there, once you've collected the needed footage you leave immediately, we're dealing with dangerous subjects, as well as our small numbers we want as less casualties as possible" Zhong Hui and Lu Lingqi nodded, taking in the information, Zhong Hui frowned at the thought of it, being eaten by another human was not how he wanted to go.

"While group A will be collecting evidence, group B which will be led by the colonel, your task will be to clear out a path for the rest of us" Yu Jin explained whilst drawing on a map on the wall.

Guan Ping looked at Dun, a concerned look on his face, he was afraid of messing things up, he wanted a chance to prove himself, at least this once, and he wanted to feel like he wasn't falling behind the rest of his colleagues. He also wished Yu Jin would stop looking down on him, in a way he really wanted to impress him, but that was going to be a hard challenge. Dun believed in him however, he was willing to help him accomplish it.

"Group B are going to be Fa Zheng, Gan Ning, and Li Dian, the colonel will lead you through the back entrance, your job will be to clear the main entrance for us all to leave the building safely, you will be using silencers and need to clear the entrance without a sound" Gan Ning was already smiling, as the news was like music to his ears, he was pleased to know he was taking part in all the action.

"I will lead group C, we're going through the ground floor, Ping, Ma Dai and Zhen, you three will be setting C4s on all three routes of the underground, we want the factory to completely collapse down on itself, this will involve a swift approach however, we can't afford to delay, everything should work sequentially, group A takes the footage, by the time they're done group B should have already cleared the entrance, group B shouldn't leave the building until they reunite with group A, once you're all out, you will guard the front from the outside, right after you, Ping, Zhen and Ma Dai should have finished setting the C4s, the C4s have exactly 8 minutes till they detonate, I will be the last to leave the building, I'll be setting the last few on the stairs all the way to the main gate. Is that understood?" Yu Jin asked to recheck that the instructions were clear. "So remind me who leaves last?"

"You sir!" Fa Zheng was quick to reply. Yu Jin nodded as though was pleased someone was listening.

"As mentioned earlier, you don't leave your group members behind, the rule however excludes me and the colonel, we can handle ourselves" He reminded. "Is there any questions?"

"Commander can I change to group C? I would prefer to accompany you instead" Fa Zheng requested, Guan Ping looked at him hopeful that Yu Jin would swap them around, he felt that being by the commander was only going to make him feel more nervous.

"No. You stay where I put you" Yu Jin told him, Guan Ping looked at Dun for help, but there wasn't much he could do.

"Sir, we'll never make it in 8 minutes, it's close to impossible" Zhen Ji pointed out.

"We won't set them immediately, we're going to wait ten minutes once we've reached the ground floor, by then Lingqi and Hui should be retreating, Guan Ping is going first, you will wait one minute till you take off, then Ma Dai will follow also, I will be leaving on the last five minutes"

"Sir what if you don't make it in time" Lu Lingqi spoke her voice unusually quiet.

"Worry about yourself" Yu Jin replied coldly. Lu Lingqi lowered her head, a little annoyed at the commander's bluntness.

"It's already bad enough that we only have 7 officer cadets, so try not to die" Yu Jin spoke sarcastically, Dun covered his mouth with his hand, as the rest of the soldiers exchanged glances, perhaps the commander had made a mistake? there was 8 of them, but that wasn't it, Dun had understood however, by 7 he meant that Ping didn't really count, which was rather cruel of him to say. "If you do happen to die, we'll have a moment of silence in your honour, I personally won't cry much, but my partner here Dun's a little sensitive, so don't upset him" Yu Jin continued with his mockery. Dun had no reaction to the commander's words which emphasized his sarcasm further. Zhen Ji glared at him, and if looks could kill, she was only one from a very long list of officers who hated Yu Jin.

Assuming he'd done his job, he took his pistol off the table and slipped it into the belt of his trousers and took off to his room.

Fa Zheng hadn't understood why he refused his company, but since he was sending two of his soldiers on their own he wanted someone to watch Dun's back and wasn't sure if he could trust Li Dian and Gan Ning to do so, as for Ping, he made sure he'd keep him close so he could watch over him to stay out of trouble, but that's not how Dun or Ping saw it, they only assumed he did it to keep them apart. As for Ning and Li Dian, they were pleased to be involved in the part where all the action takes place.

Zhen Ji took this chance to speak to the colonel on a matter only he could help with. "Sir…" She addressed him. Finishing rolling up the map, he turned to the beautiful lady. "Hmm?"

"Sir as you know… I'm not a permanent member of team alpha, I was hoping if I perform well in this mission, perhaps I stay with team alpha… please sir, I won't let you down…" Though she wasn't pleading, her appealing voice was enough to persuade the commander.

"I can't make any promises, but I'll speak to the marshal…" Dun asserted. He looked away avoiding her piercing gaze, she was too beautiful to be in the army he told himself.

"Thank you commander" she bit her lip noticing how her appearance had moved him.

Dun quickly walked away trying to avoid her, she might have had a beautiful face but Dun knew to not get involved with her, she was the type of woman that only brought by trouble, just like walking into a mouse trap, a femme fatale, he was still going to speak to Yu Jin however, just a altruistic favour.

* * *

The commanders had retreated into their rooms, and now it was time for the officer cadets to settle into theirs too. Zhen Ji and Lu Lingqi stood by the door observing where it'd be best to sleep without being harassed by the likes of Gan Ning. All the boys had chose to stick together, while Guan Ping didn't seem to bother himself with fitting in, or more like was sure he wasn't going to be welcome among them, simply because he didn't fit their 'cool' group. Zhen already didn't like Lingqi simply out of jealousy, seeing another female made her feel as though she was her rival, especially how Lingqi was standing out without really trying, however they were bound to be stuck together since they were the only two ladies.

Lingqi strolled over to where Ping was, holding her hand out. "Lu Lingqi…" She introduced herself. Guan Ping sat up from his blanket, shaking her hand, he seemed a little surprised that she'd want to be his friend out of everyone else; it was purely due to him being the only guy looking decent enough to not try anything funny really. Before he could speak she interrupted. "Ping, right?"

"Yeah…" Guan Ping stared blankly.

"I know, well everyone's always talking about you…" She smiled as she began to fix the bed next to him.

"What are they saying?" Guan Ping asked surprised.

"I don't think you want to know" She replied truthfully.

Guan Ping frowned, he could guess what it was without her needing to say more, and the sad part was that Gan Ning was actually his friend, yet he was going around saying Ping had bedded both his commanders to get to where he is, it wasn't that anyone believed it, but no one was telling him to stop when he was saying all those cruel things.

Zhen Ji paced over to Ping as well, a little more hesitant however. "Zhen Ji, you can call me Zhen for short" She greeted, not really smiling which caused Ping to find her a little intimidating. He wasn't the only one, she was stunningly gorgeous, like a painting of a goddess brought to live, her piercing hazel orbs were framed by long lashes, her pale complexion only made her rosy cheeks glow more, her hair long, silky smooth and dark like the night, always neatly held up in a ponytail, she was the image of perfection, enough to cause any man to doubt his self worth and bring out his insecurities, however she inspired more lust than loving interest, aware of this she made sure to avoid wasting her time with boys, though she had lost hope in the male specie she was still waiting to meet a man worthy to have her all and not just her body.

Lu Lingqi however possessed angelic like features, her bright round eyes were fiery and cold at the same time, a betrayed image of innocence, there was a deep sadness in her gaze, a pure soul touched by darkness, it wasn't hard to notice how emotionally withdrawn she was, and she seemed to like occupying herself in warfare to forget her troubles, she was determined to make something out of herself, and just like Ping she had also adopted impressing Yu Jin to be a goal. Though she had a tomboyish nature, she still had her charm and was the type of girl who was admired in her simplicity.

Zhen Ji climbed the bunk bed, choosing to be above Ping since she didn't really want to speak to anybody.

"Do you mind if sit?" Lu Lingqi asked Ping. He shook his head attempting to smile, but he had a lot on his mind, he was usually the over thinker, his mind would keep playing with no stop button. He often wished he could silence all those thoughts but was never strong enough to overcome his doubts.

"Why have you joined the army?" She asked, with a sweet smile, she was really trying hard to befriend him, which Ping found odd, he didn't find himself interesting enough for anyone to take notice of him.

"Well I… I don't know… I know this sounds a little funny, don't laugh please" Guan Ping bit his lip to hold back the smile.

Lu Lingqi chuckled not able to hold it back. "I won't" She giggled even more.

Guan Ping felt himself cheer up in her company. "Well I've always had this feeling that my purpose is bigger than me, I wanted to make my life mean something…"

Lingqi burst into giggles. "That's not funny" She insisted, finally composing herself before continuing. "I joined for a similar reason, I wanted to become a somebody, you know… give myself a reason to fight" She smiled.

Guan Ping returned the smile, rather fascinated that he wasn't the only one who thought that way. Overhearing their conversation, Zhen Ji peeked her head from above, feeling a little left out. "Erm… Can I join?" She asked quietly.

Guan Ping turned to Lingqi to see if it was okay with her, but she had no reaction however. "Sure" Guan Ping smiled softly. Climbing down from her bed, she hopped onto the side of Ping's bed.

Gan Ning watched from the sidelines, dying of both jealousy and envy. "Why do they have such a strange taste? Look who they choose" He groaned.

"Your big mouth must be a real turn off" Fa Zheng mocked.

Gan Ning rolled his eyes. "Life's not fair…" he complained.

"You know, he doesn't sound as bad as people were saying back at camp" Li Dian responded. "I mean he seems nice, I'll be honest, he doesn't look like anything special, I understand how people could question how he's been chosen to accompany the commanders on more than one mission, and then he's the first pick to forming team alpha" Li Dian mentioned leaning from the top of the bunk bed.

"Seems like General Yu Jin hates him if you ask me…" Zhong Hui revealed, as he continued to twist the locks of his hair with his fingers.

"The General hates everyone" Fa Zheng counterclaimed, with an amused smirk on his face.

"I still don't get it, how does someone like him get chosen more than once" Zhong Hui questioned, curling a few more locks of his brown hair obsessively.

"Probably done commander Dun a few sexual favours here and there" Gan Ning snarled.

Fa Zheng and Li Dian exchanged glances not really agreeing with him. "Doesn't seem like the type…" Fa Zheng remarked.

"How do you know?" Gan Ning responded, challenging the other but before they can continue Ma Dai interrupted.

"How about you sleep, and find something else to concern yourself with, hm?" He rolled his eyes with a sarcastic but bright smile, turning to the other side of his bed.

"He's the only one with brain out of you, beside me of course. I'm out" Zhong Hui announced, sinking into his blanket and adjusting himself in a comfortable position to catch some rest.

* * *

The evening of the next day had come by quickly, and the officer cadets were starting to feel the pressure. While most the officers had gathered in the base room, Dun requested for Ping to meet him down one of the hallways.

"Ping listen… I know you can do this" Dun affirmed, placing his hands on the youth's shoulders.

"I don't know, Dun something feels off..." Guan Ping was very anxious, he felt as though he was being put to great test, almost as though his success or failure will determine his life from there. Or maybe because that's what he set his future on, after trying and failing continuously you don't become pessimistic but more self aware of your own capabilities, it still becomes defeating however to know your best wouldn't be good enough, you start to think what now? Where do I go? You become lost of what path to take, since you had your heart set on something you loved and wished to excel in, but reality defeats ambition.

"What are you worried about?" Dun spoke softly.

Guan Ping held his gaze, it felt reassuring, the look in Dun's eyes was telling him he was worrying too much, it helped in silencing the voices in his head, since he wasn't able to do it on his own, quiet the worrier he was. "If I mess up Yu Jin's going to dislike me even more" He murmured.

"Why are you so focused on impressing him so badly" Dun asked annoyed.

"I don't know, I feel like I need his approval to confirm whether I belong here or not" Guan Ping frowned, his eyes narrowing.

"So you'd just leave if you fail once?" Dun disproved, looking displeased with Ping's negativity.

Guan Ping didn't respond, instead he chose to turn his face. He paused, taking one of Dun's hands and holding it tightly. "I don't feel like I belong here anymore…" He confessed.

Dun frowned frustrated with Ping's lack of self esteem. "Listen, you belong where ever I am, you're going to do this, and whatever happens I'll always have your back, don't you ever forget that" Freeing his hand from Ping's grip, he lifted his head and placed a soft kiss on the youth's forehead. "I know you can do it, I trust you" He reassured.

Ping gave half a smile, Dun's support was really comforting, but Ping's self doubt beat that too.

"We need to head back to the main base…" He pointed out, his voice sounding a little dull. He took Dun's hands and removed them off him gently.

Xiahou Dun sighed, making his way to the base room also. On the way Ping met Lingqi; she decided to accompany him there; however upon seeing that Gan Ning was irritated, choosing to get her attention, he went about in the wrong way.

"Hey Ping, how's Dun?" He teased.

Lingqi turned to him with a glazed expression on her face. "Leave him alone" she ordered firmly.

"Was I speaking to you princess?" He mocked. "I was speaking to cream puff over there"

Guan Ping turned around clenching his fist, usually he was able to ignore Ning's childish behaviour, but this time he was unusually bad tempered. Turning quickly, his fist hit a hard knock to Ning's jaw.

Gan Ning needed a few seconds to comprehend what had happened, Guan Ping punched him?

The rest of the officer cadets along with Lingqi stood amazed, no one would have ever imagined. Guan Ping hadn't meant to punch him, it was just the nervousness, he ended up taking it out on him.

Feeling his jaw, Ning approached Ping to return the favour, he wasn't going to allow him to humiliate him in front of the rest of the officers and more importantly Lingqi, Ping gulped flinching when Ning was about to strike him, but Dun was quick to slam him into the wall, bending his arm backwards, he warned "Don't you fucking dare, don't you dare touch him" Dun whispered threateningly. The rest of the officers were stunned at what had happened, the one eyed man was known to be calm and rarely proved to be violent towards the officer cadet's.

He released him after giving him another shove to the wall. Realising how overly worked up he got, he walked away from him trying to calm himself. He hadn't even laid a finger on Guan Ping, but don't was quick to lose his temper.

Guan Ping rushed to the aching blonde. "Gan Ning, I really didn't mean to-"

"Get off me" Gan Ning gave him a light shove, getting up on his own.

Just then Yu Jin walked in, he looked around the room, aware of the strange atmosphere he cocked an eyebrow. But the officer cadet's had lined up ready to receive orders.

Though Yu Jin hadn't seen their faces for long, he knew the expressions he would be expecting and something was a little off. He glared at Ping who wasn't very good at hiding, noticing how tense he was, he carried on staring, making Ping feel uncomfortable, the dark haired boy looked away and back to see if he was looking at him, finding that he was, he fixed his eyes to the ground. Yu Jin walked up the line, the awkward mood in addition to Yu Jin's suspicion made even those who weren't involved feel guilty.

He looked back at Dun who seemed unusually quiet in his corner, it was only unusual because Yu Jin had gotten used to him always at his side whenever, so he knew something was wrong.

Noticing Gan Ning's head lowered, he clasped his face hard, lifting it up, he was sure that wasn't the same eager soldier from yesterday, noticing the bruise on his face, he tilted his head sideward's. His grasp was tight adding to Ning's pain.

"Who've you been fighting with?" He asked, his question sounding more like an interrogation.

"No one sir" Ning denied.

Yu Jin raised his brows and his eyes were quick to narrow, his expression clearly stating 'bullshit'. Guan Ping's heart dropped, his life was about to be over.

"Commander Dun… hit me" Gan Ning lied.

A lucky escape, Guan Ping had been holding his breath. Yu Jin nodded "Hm…" But didn't say much more, if Dun had hit him he probably deserved it he thought to himself. But he was still suspicious of Ping who was having a hard time acting normal.

Releasing Gan Ning, he turned back to the wall where the map was hanging the day before, inserting his hand into a small part in the wall, he pressed a button which opened a cupboard, the officers exchanged glances wondering what the hell he was doing.

He pulled out a huge box, which upon sight looked like it withheld some valuable things. He opened it up, pulling out all different types of firearms, and explosives. The officer cadet's eyes lit up in excitement as they awaited their guns to be handed to them, and so Yu Jin had given out the silencers and pistols, he handed Dun an AK 47, and took one for himself. He wasn't going to give them a shot at the bigger goods just yet.

Opening the firearm magazine, Fa Zheng was concerned by the few bullets it withheld. "Commander isn't this too little?" He asked.

Yu Jin paused for a few minutes, approaching Ping he pulled the silencer out of his hand and released the magazine leaving the gun with only 5 bullets.

"Only leave 5…" He told Ma Dai and Zhen Ji who looked at each other in confusion. "Just making sure you don't shoot anybody" Yu Jin whispered to Ping, with a straight face before giving him the gun back. Guan Ping pouted irritated how he was still treating him like he was an idiot.

Taking the bullets off them he gave them to Dun's group B, and handed group C a normal loud pistol. "You only use this in case of emergency… Remember we want to be as quiet as possible" He articulated.

"Ma Dai take this" He handed him a bag full of code breakers and system hacking electronics. Dun assisted also, bringing out the military gear, he and Yu Jin both helped the officer cadets wear their bullet proof vests. Ping watched Yu Jin belt his straps together, he felt uncomfortable with the closeness, things had been extremely awkward for a while now, he looked up to find Yu Jin studying him. Their eyes became fixed with one another. A million questions were going through Ping's head. He couldn't explain the way he looked at him, but he knew it wasn't hatred he saw in his eyes. His lack of emotion made it harder to presume what he's thinking. His eyes had become soft and heavy, the eye contact between them was sustained and lingered longer than it should have, attaching a talkie-walkie to one of the straps, Yu Jin walked away to fix Ma Dai's. Guan Ping watched him walk away; a confused expression crossed his face. Was Yu Jin saying goodbye or something? It was like a wordless conversation.

* * *

Locked and loaded team alpha began their mission; just like the plan Lu Lingqi and Zhong Hui sneaked through into the factory. It took some searching before they could find the location of the crime scene. The factory looked rather ordinary and the smell of shea butter filled the entire place, Zhong Hui grabbed one of the soap bars, taking off one of his gloves to feel it, it was immensely soft, he allowed himself to inhale the refreshing fragrance, the sweet smell tickled his nose, he let out a content sigh.

Lingqi turned around. "What the hell are you doing?" She snatched the bar out of his hand, throwing it back into the pile. "Come on, we have a mission to get on with" She reminded.

"Don't you know how to be gentle?" He yelled as though he was intensely offended over her throwing the soap bar.

"Stop yelling!" She whispered loudly.

"Blimey, who do you think you are, ordering me around like that?!" Zhong Hui snarled.

Lingqi huffed, annoyed at the other's stubbornness.

"I can take one if I want" He insisted but the grey blonde haired girl pushed his hand to hit it back into the big tub, but instead it slipped down and fell to the bottom. Both of them leaned over the rail to look at where it went.

Squinting her greyish eyes, her eyes lit up when she spotted a figure. "Over there" She pointed, "Quick, there's someone with a flashlight" She announced.

She hurried down as quietly as possible, Zhong Hui followed making faces every time she spoke as though he was five, and of course he had placed a soap bar in his pocket when she wasn't looking.

"If it wasn't for my soap bar, we wouldn't have found the way, so you should thank me" Zhong Hui carried on bragging.

"Can you just shut up" She requested rolling her eyes; she pushed her hair back from her face irritated.

"Ingrate" He scoffed.

Following the man with the flashlight, he entered through a door which was masked by a mat in the same colour as the wall.

"What in the world?" She exclaimed.

"Pretty cheap huh" He smirked, as though it couldn't be more obvious.

Upon entering through the door, a foul smell heaved into their breathing systems, almost choking them to death. The two tried to hold in the coughs, covering their faces, they carried on in, both were pretty scared of what awaited them. Both their eyes widened upon reaching the inside, horrified expressions to what they saw. Tubs filled with human limbs, from torso's and heads to even smaller chopped pieces, like fingers and ears. Zhong Hui almost threw up.

"We better get out of here as soon as possible" She suggested, pulling out the camera to record."Stay on the lookout"

"Will you stop ordering me around like I'm a dullard, you're not the commander around here sweetheart" He snatched the camera off her.

"Really? Wow, look around you, look where we are" She argued, frustrated how he was dying to be in a none existent limelight when they were so close to death. "This is the last time I'm working with you" She expressed angrily.

"Really now? When I become commander, you will be the first person I'll get rid off" He argued back.

"Ha! And who would appoint you in command, mister I think the whole world revolves around me!" She responded.

"I Zhong Hui don't require the approval of stuck up bitch like yourself, you wait and see"

"What did you just call me? You pathetic excuse for a man!" She punched the aburn haired man.

His mouth fell open, disgusted with the humiliation, but before they could continue with their bickering, a bullet was fired their way. She grabbed his hand pulling him up. "Quick run!" She instructed. Both of them began their retreat, but were more than just outnumbered and the only choice they had was to take shelter behind one of the soap tubs.

* * *

"Where are they at now?" Yu Jin asked Guan Ping as Ma Dai fiddled with some wires.

Guan Ping held the button at the side of the talkie walkie. "Group C to group B, what's the situation?"

Xiahou Dun answered from the other side of the talkie walkie. "Things are still peaceful here; but we've lost contact with group A…"

Yu Jin's narrow eyes widened, he tried to remain calm, but Ping could sense the worry in his voice. "Let's get moving…"

* * *

Meanwhile Dun was leading group B. "This way…" He ushered, going through a long passage. "Stay sharp and vigilant" He instructed. Now that things had gotten serious Gan Ning and Li Dian were both very quiet, as for Fa Zheng he was disinterested.

Yu Jin's voice came from the other side of the talkie walkie. "Dun… Go after Hui and Lingqi" He told him.

Dun looked a little unsure; everything wasn't going the way it was suppose to. "Understood sir" He responded. The soldiers looked at him worriedly as though they knew what was coming. He paused before announcing. "Dian and Ning, you're on your own, find the way to the main gate and clear the entrance. Fa Zheng you come with me"

Gan Ning and Li Dian nodded in affirmation.

* * *

Lingqi and Zhong Hui had been captured…

"This a pretty one" One of the scary men laughed, pulling Lingqi from her hair.

Zhong Hui charged at him, knocking him over, of course falling over with him since his hands were tied.

Lingqi's eyes widened, she knew they'd try to hurt them now.

The man pulled him by the hair to one of the tubs filled with human blood. Zhong Hui knew what was about to happen to him. The freakish man shoved his head in causing him to gag on the thick blood, Lingqi looked around helplessly. The man pulled him back out, only allowing a small interval to breathe before forcing him to choke on more of the blood.

"Stop!" Lingqi yelled. "Stop it you monsters!"

One of the men ushered for him stop, pulling him out he threw him to the side. Zhong Hui coughed out the poisoning blood, struggling to both breathe and see, as the blood covered him. Lingqi crawled over to him. "Hui!" She stared at him both worried and helpless.

"Put them on the human fryer" One of the disgusting men laughed, they didn't even look human, expressions like monsters, unclean and savagely natured. Overly grown hair, covered in grease, sweat covered bodies, and a freakish hunger for human flesh.

They weren't human, they couldn't have been, they're demons hiding in human form. The sight of the bodies cut up was sickening. The blood flooded floors, the place was crawling with diseases. The strange thing about it all was how normal it was for them. No sense of morality or self awareness for their actions. It's funny how taking away this small thing strips us from our title as humans. Without it we are just like animals, flesh eating cannibals. Eating away our own kind, tearing apart our nature and replacing the empty space of where our heart used to be with sins and blood. Filth covered darkness, in the absence of compassion…

Zhong Hui grunted loudly, before coughing out more blood as they both laid on the conveyor belt which was slowly sliding them to their doom. They could both already feel their bodies dripping in sweat from the heat radiating from the oil. It wasn't a real human fryer, originally it was where mixing the soap wax was done before shaping and moulding it into bars, it took very high conditions to melt big quantities which meant the machine was able to be turned to extremely high temperatures, and to turn it into a human fryer the machine was emptied of wax and replaced by oil.

The thought was loathsome, being fried alive, feeling your skin curl into boils as you float tortured by your unanswered pleas of mercy, where was the satisfaction in watching that?

"I didn't think it would end so quickly…" Lu Lingqi spoke quietly, she could feel her eyes tearing up, not because she feared death but simply because it was too soon, she wasn't ready to die yet, there was still so much she wished she could have done.

"Oh don't go crying on me now" Zhong Hui responded, whilst carrying on to cough his life out.

Then suddenly the conveyer belt paused, and the light switched off as well, the savagely men conferred amongst themselves as to how it could have happened.

"Wait! They're coming for us, Commander Yu Jin said to watch each other's backs" She exclaimed.

"Geesh why couldn't they put you in front, I don't want to be the first to be fried" Zhong Hui complained.

Lingqi narrowed her eyes irritably. "Is that your biggest concern? Just when I was starting to think maybe you're a real man" She mocked.

"Don't you dare insult me like that? I'm a man whether you like it or not! I just saved your life!" He yelled and it was like the two hadn't learnt from earlier.

* * *

"What happened?" Yu Jin questioned.

"I don't know, the circuit blew up, just give me a few seconds, I'll turn the electricity back on" Ma Dai informed.

Nope, just an accident, no one was coming for the two.

"Hurry up, we don't have much time" Yu Jin encouraged him to quicken his pace. Guan Ping and Zhen Ji watched uneasy expressions on their faces.

* * *

"Hey I can't see anything!" Li Dian complained. "Gan Ning where've you gone" He put his arms out in front of him to feel through the darkness.

"Get your hands off me!" Gan Ning growled.

"Oh… Sorry, I didn't realise that was you" Li Dian laughed nervously. "Hey… Erm, are you hard?"

"No! I'm not!" Gan Ning yelled, his face had flushed red in embarrassment but luckily for him Li Dian couldn't see him.

"But I just felt-" Li Dian continued awkwardly.

"We've got to find the entrance" Gan Ning stuttered at almost every word, he began to walk, having one hand on the wall to ensure they were on track.

Li Dian followed uncomfortably. "Hey forget I said anything" He added, but every time he spoke the situation only became more awkward.

"Just… Keep your mouth closed will you" Gan Ning snapped.

* * *

Colonel Xiahou Dun led on, whilst Fa Zheng followed, at least the two had the common sense to use a flashlight.

"We've got company" Fa Zheng whispered.

"Nothing this can't fix" Xiahou Dun pulled out a smoke grenade, and the two pulled back taking cover by a side wall, Dun pulled out an M9 from his holster pouch handing it to Fa Zheng. "You know how to work this baby?"

"Yeah, I've had a few go's" He smirked awaiting the orders to fire.

"It's show time" Dun announced, biting off the safety pin and sliding the smoke bomb towards the men guarding the pathway.

Upon hearing the sound of something clattering on the floor, the men turned around only to see the grenade, but it blew up stunning them before they could take cover, taking the chance whilst the guards were still affected by the stun, Fa Zheng and Dun came through the smoke, raining fire at the thugs wiping the whole entirety guarding that path way, mostly by blind fire really, it wouldn't have been safe to stop shooting since they didn't know how many there were with the darkness concealing their presence.

* * *

"Why can I hear gun shots?" Yu Jin kicked the wall frustrated.

"Got it!" Ma Dai had fixed the wires just on time, of course also meaning bad news for Lingqi and Hui on the other side of the building.

"We need to get out of here, Ping go" Yu Jin handed him a bag full of C4's, "As quick as you can, and avoid engaging in combat"

Guan Ping nodded shakily, there was no time to stop and think, but he was under too much pressure to know what to do.

"Ping, Ping" Yu Jin placed his hands on the youth's head. "Focus… Take a deep breath" He suggested.

Guan Ping exhaled trying to calm his state of panic; the other two had also become frightened just watching him panic.

"Alright now go" Yu Jin patted him on the back. It wasn't that he had said it, but it was almost like he mean't to say 'I know you can do it'

Guan Ping moved swiftly, he raced up the stairs and made his way through to the hallway he was meant to blow up. The pillars were fairly distant from each other. One minute had probably passed now and Zhen was bound to be making her way to the second hallway he told himself, thinking of the easiest and quickest technique, it was better if he did it on the go, run and place, then the next in succession. Nodding to tell himself he was ready, he took off, darting from one pillar to another, only to jump to the 7th one for cover, the chain was broken due to guards being in the vicinity, there was at least ten of them, keeping in mind he only had five bullets, he had to think of some way to get through, enough time had been wasted as it was.

"Guan Ping don't miss, Guan Ping don't miss" He told himself, before shooting two off the guards on the further side to draw the attention of the other's to them. He shot another who was suspiciously observing his direction. Holding his breath, he darted to the next pillar only depending on prayers to keep him safe.

* * *

"Gan Ning…. I have a bad feeling about this, I don't think we're going the right way" Li Dian pointed out worriedly.

"Didn't I tell you to keep your mouth closed" Gan Ning snapped refusing to listen to the other.

"I don't remember much of the map, but I recall Yu Jin mentioning the entrance to be led by a hallway through the centre, we're trailing off Dun and Zheng this way" He explained.

Gan Ning sighed heavily. "Okay, we're lost…" He declared.

Li Dian furrowed his brows dejectedly. "Now what?"

* * *

A lucky escape, Guan Ping had managed to get through without being spotted, but was now left with one bullet in his silencer, he raced to the main entrance, only to jump behind a wall when he saw it occupied. What happened to team Alpha? There was no sign of trespassers in the area meaning none of them had made it to the main entrance, it was impossible for Guan Ping to do it on his own, in addition to the extra number of guards the gate had after Dun had alerted the whole building by going it loud and now there was more soldiers on the lookout. With them all still stuck in the factory it was almost like a group endorsed suicide, and beyond that by explosives.

Guan Ping sat down by the wall hoping for a miracle. " _Father what do I do?"_ He continued to look around the different halls hoping for someone to show up, but there was nothing but the white floors, and walls accompanied by the strong scent of shea butter. A rather disturbing atmosphere. Just as he turned to check that none of the soldiers were patrolling his way, he gasped being startled by Zhen Ji, she approached so quietly that he hadn't even noticed. He put his hand on his mouth to cover his loud breathing, while she peeked over the corner to analyse the situation. Turning back to him, she announced. "Come on"

"What?" Guan Ping asked confusedly.

"Come on, let's take them out" She rephrased.

"I have one bullet left in my silencer" He declared.

"And I have none, use your handgun" The black haired girl suggested.

"Maybe Yu Jin was right, I should have stuck with the farming life, father I deserve this for leaving you working on that sullen farm all by yourself" He chattered away uselessly.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to die here, stop being a chicken" She forcefully pulled him up, struggling due to their weight difference. "After three, you shoot that one, and I'll shoot the one by the door, shoot and take cover, got it?"

"Got it" Guan Ping mumbled.

In between the silence was a faded sound of commotion in the background.

"One" She counted, keeping eye contact with Ping to check he was still with her.

Suddenly there was an outburst of rapid gunfire, which sounded only a few meters away.

Upon hearing that sound the rest of the soldiers turned around, panicked due to that Ping yelled "Three!" And shot two men after one another, startled by his sudden act she also followed, shooting another one in the chest, before retreating behind a container.

She stared at Guan Ping both bewildered and shocked.

"Sorry…"Guan Ping cried.

"No no, its fine" She nodded, but now was not the time to be struck in awe, and the two had to think of something fast, the soldiers rained bullets in their direction and both decided it was wiser to remain behind the container than to receive a bullet right between the eyes.

"Now what?" Guan Ping uttered looking at her hopeful that she had a plan B.

"We pray…" She disregarded, her face was blank, and so was her mind, how would they get out of this? This was a familiar situation, just like before Hui and Lingqi taking shelter behind the tub of limbs; these two were hidden behind a container while being surrounded.

Just when all hope was lost, there was a boisterous racket approaching closer, and who else from team Alpha had a mouth the size of China of course, his obnoxiously loud voice had never felt so calming ever, the two sprung up anticipating to end this.

"Hey Zhen, Ping, check this out!" The blonde exclaimed pulling out a rifle.

Both of them were quick to duck back down before their heads would get blown by Gan Ning. He was enjoying himself a little too much. He pressed in the trigger, continuously firing in succession and was quickly joined by Li Dian who also possessed a rifle.

Zhen Ji and Guan Ping remained with their heads down. "I don't want to die on this maniac's hands!" She yelled, presuming Ping couldn't hear her under the loud gunfire.

"Yeah me neither!" Guan Ping yelled back.

Finally holding back the gunfire once there were both holes through the dead men and the walls, he looked around the room to finally notice the damage he had done.

Zhen and Ping peeked their heads to analyse if it was safe to come out.

"Wow!" Gan Ning grinned. "Did you guys see that?" He emphasized, "Now this is what I call a gun" He began to fire again but against the wall this time. "Wahooo!" He shouted excitedly, only to be hit by a hard object on his back, and that was exactly why Yu Jin hadn't allowed them to take the larger firearms. Ceasing fire, he turned to see who the offender was, only to see a brick on the floor and Dun along with Lingqi, Fa Zheng and Hui.

"Quit wasting ammo" Xiahou Dun scolded.

"Couldn't you have said it without bricking me" He rubbed his shoulder.

Guan Ping sprung up once he heard the one eyed man's voice; he couldn't hold back the smile that automatically formed on his face, and though he was tempted to run and hug him, tell him how much he was worried about him and how he missed him, he only smiled.

"You look rough" Gan Ning pointed out about Hui and Lingqi.

"Get out of my face" She snapped, walking off with her arms folded. The rest of the officer cadets observed the two, it wasn't hard to notice their pain through the state they were in, and this was aside the trauma of almost being fried of course.

"Wow, someone needs to teach you how to aim" Fa Zheng remarked, staring at the bullet pierced walls.

Gan Ning rubbed his nose as though he was proud of what he accomplished.

"We have to get out of here" Xiahou Dun reminded, leading the officer cadet's through the entrance before they'd encounter more trouble.

"Sir surely more than eight minutes have passed by now, there's no sign of an explosion" Zhen Ji notified.

"Luckily" He reminded, "Or we'd all be dead"

"There's no sign of Ma Dai or Commander Yu Jin" Fa Zheng noted, studying Dun in an attempt to guess what he was thinking to do next. "Perhaps we should go in?" He added.

"No, the rest of you stay here. I'll go in, board the helicopter as soon as it gets here" He instructed, rushing off to re-enter the building before any of them could offer their assistance.

"Looks like we'll be the ones having a moment of silence in his honour" Zhen Ji referenced back to Yu Jin's earlier quote, brushing her hair back away from her face, as if she found Yu Jin's death amusing.

The rest had no reactions to her words, as for Ping his mind had wandered away without him, he wanted to go after Dun, but at the same time he knew he wouldn't be of much help, but he couldn't help but worry, also if he was being honest with himself he was hoping no harm would come to the marshal either.

Zhong Hui and Lu Lingqi collapsed on the grass exhaustedly, the two were in a very bad state and were in desperate need for rest and time to heal over the trauma, although even if their thoughts were healed, their memories wouldn't be able to erase the repulsive sight they had witnessed, the memory of it would remain vivid for later days.

Fa Zheng bent down taking Li Dian's rifle and giving it to Guan Ping. "Come on" He told him, as though he knew what Guan Ping was thinking, Gan Ning shot up as well. "Hey! Wait for me!" He chased after them, and Li Dian followed also not wanting to be left out.

* * *

Just as Dun had entered the building he met up with Yu Jin and Ma Dai.

"I fucking told you to stay out!" Yu Jin yelled, giving Xiahou Dun a hard shove to the chest.

Xiahou Dun stood there aggravated.

"Come on! Now's not the time!" Yu Jin complained, grabbing Xiahou Dun by the arm to get him to move, but he just stared at him, pushing him away from him.

"It's fine to ask for help if you need it you know" The one eyed man scolded.

"I was doing perfectly fine without you" Yu Jin insisted.

"Yeah… That's what I told myself too" Xiahou Dun mumbled sarcastically.

Just before their argument could carry on further, the rest of the cadets came running in, and it's only when Yu Jin saw them that he gained consciousness of his surroundings.

"The C4's!" He yelled. "Get the fuck out of here! Weren't my instructions clear?" Yu Jin began to bark.

Meanwhile the group were all charging out, it was a close call. Yu Jin counted in his head _"10 seconds left"_ He was far behind the rest of them due to him being loaded with firearms and weaponry. Noticing this Fa Zheng began to run back. "Where the hell are you going?! Turn back around" Yu Jin shouted but the dark haired man refused to listen. Reaching his commander, he unstrapped his holster's and helped throw off the weapons, Yu Jin stopped his barking for a while and helped take them off.

" _Five…"_

" _Four…"_

"Get low!" Xiahou Dun instructed, as the rest of team watched praying for the rest to make it.

" _Three…"_

" _Two…"_

Both Yu Jin and Fa Zheng had only resumed sprinting.

"Yu Jin get down!" Xiahou Dun repeated, his heart sinking when his stubborn commander refused to listen.

" _ **One…"**_

The factory burst and a sudden blinding flash followed by a deafening roar, showing up in the form of a volcanic like explosion sending a rain of flames spraying dusty debris into the air annihilating everything within its radius, It was only when he heard the booming that he finally got down, and took Fa Zheng down with him. They had gotten as far away from the explosion as possible but as far away as possible wasn't far enough, they had all felt the heated wind of the building blowing up, and those closest felt it harder, however the shockwave hit all, Yu Jin struggled to get up, falling back down due to the sharp pain in his ears, Fa Zheng had also attempted to stand up but laid back down when he felt the earth spinning underneath him. Yu Jin clasped his own head in his hands trying to steady the shakiness of both his sight and head. Though he began to breathe heavily to catch his breath he was still not able to get enough air in, he forced himself back up, catching a quick glimpse of his surroundings the rest of the soldiers had been on the ground struggling too by the impact, he trudged over to Fa Zheng in an attempt to aid him, but he barely had any strength in his legs and his knees were tremendously shaky, before he could reach him, he looked up to the blurry hues of red, yellow and orange overpowered by black smoke,he felt a strong ringing in his ears accompanied by nothing else but a loud silence, the shockwave had deafened him.

" _We have to get out of here"_ He told himself, before falling to the ground. Then everything faded to black…

* * *

 _ **Flowergirly~**_

 **Like it? Follow and favourite ^-^, More chapters to come soon!**

 **Let me know what you guys think of Yu Jin in the reviews, I'm wondering how he comes across and what's the impression I've created.**

 **Chapter 3 is a time skip backward to two years ago, Central African Republic part 2.**

 **Till next time ^-^ Ciao!**


	3. First Shot, Man Down

**Authors note:** **As this ended up longer than I intended I've spilt it into two parts, so the next part should be up in a few days as it only needs tweaking, And sorry for the wait! ^-^**

 **ENJOY!**

* * *

Chapter 3: First Shot, Man Down

* * *

 _In the year 2053 – Bangui, Central African Republic_

* * *

"Yeah they bribe em" Xiahou Dun declared.

"Well don't they get enough pay or something? I mean they're in commandry positions" Guan Ping asked.

"Greed…" Xiahou Dun responded. "Greed is the answer to your question. They get money and they want more"

"But shouldn't they be grateful? They're not starving; they have homes to live in?" Guan Ping explained.

"Guan Ping" Xiahou Dun sighed. "Not everyone thinks like you"

"And you?" Guan Ping raised his eyebrows.

Xiahou Dun paused before his lips curved into a smirk.

"What, you mean…? You've accepted a bribe before?" Guan Ping was shocked to find out.

Xiahou Dun chuckled as though it was an amusing subject.

Guan Ping glared at him disgustedly. "I thought you were a good man"

Xiahou Dun's chuckle turned into an outburst of laughter. "Guan Ping good men don't live here" Composing himself, and wiping off the smirk from earlier, he continued " Good men live in heaven, and this don't look like heaven to me" He shrugged.

Guan Ping rolled his eyes displeased with what the other man said. "What about Yu Jin?"

"Speaking of the Marshal, I better get going before he notices me slacking off" Xiahou Dun announced, puckering up to steal a kiss from Guan Ping, it was a passionate and long lasting one, enough to allow him to escape right after, and avoid Guan Ping questioning his pathetic excuse to spend less time with him, while he remained in the camp infirmary, recovering from the leg injury he acquired back on the visit to the central African Republic.

Guan Ping sunk in his bed letting off an annoyed sigh, as he watched him close the door behind him. Something about Dun never changed, and though he resembled Yu Jin in many ways, he was the more arrogant version of the other, uncaring about how his actions affected others.

Xiahou Dun strolled down the hallway casually in no rush for anything, just as he almost turned the corner he bumped into Yu Jin. Dun was startled almost tripping on his own feet; he was stuck for what to say and couldn't find an excuse for why he was in the infirmary.

Yu Jin stared blankly, his brows raised as to question why Dun was so jumpy when he saw him.

"I- I wasn't visiting Ping" He finally spoke stupidly, and it wasn't like he even asked him.

Yu Jin still held the same uninterested glare. "Move" He told him, instead of walking around him.

Xiahou Dun seemed really nervous; he swallowed the lump in his throat, as he moved aside.

Yu Jin carried on to walk carelessly.

Dun turned around quickly. "Room 202"

Yu Jin stopped and turned back, raising his brows once again.

"Ping… Ping's in 202" He continued.

"I never asked you…" Yu Jin snapped. "Keep walking and don't turn this way" He commanded sounding rather frustrated, he stomped his way down the hallway.

Xiahou Dun nodded walking away awkwardly, he knew Yu Jin knew, and though the Marshal hadn't showed it, his sudden anger was enough to express how he felt, though the first lie was obvious Yu Jin wanted to believe it.

But now that everything was brought to light, this was a rather crooked situation, and the weirder thing was how jealous Dun felt knowing Yu Jin was visiting Ping. What was happening between Yu Jin and Ping? Why does he pretend to hate him? If he hated him why is he visiting him?

Dun's bitter thoughts were playing in his mind.

The one eyed man hadn't left his tent that night. Drowning in guilt and self pity, burning from frustration he contemplated on the whole picture, and the more he thought about it the more he found himself confused. Why did Yu Jin change the way he treated him and since when? And what about Ping? _What about him?_

 _Though one could have not known heartbreak, they become familiar with it once the one who loved them stopped loving them, and what a horrible emotion to become familiar with._

Where did it all go wrong? Xiahou Dun's mind answered that question on its own, and though he wanted to change the answer, he kept returning to Ping.

It was once he came into the picture. And where was Ping's fault in all of this? He couldn't blame him for loving him, especially back when he needed that love, but now what?

 _Human's are funny beings, they use the love of another to mend what one had broke, and then give it all back to the one who left them with nothing to begin with, and what about the one who innocently loved you? What about him?_

 _Cruel life…_

Maybe Yu Jin fell for Ping instead, replaced him… He told himself, and if Ping did the same no one would blame him.

 _Who in this life didn't need love or learnt to live without it?_

Xiahou Dun dropped his face into his hands, attempting to rest the machine of thinking as he was familiar with his mind taking him to places, he knew how his over thinking always got the best of him, but then again what if he was right? In this case doubt defeated rationality.

* * *

The loud sound of the helicopter blades drowned out everything. Six weeks had passed. The CEO had refused Yu Jin's request to leave Ping behind, they were returning to the Central African Republic. Dun had been different with the son of Guan Yu for a while now, as in colder towards him, as for Yu Jin he was having his usual moody tantrums every time he was refused a request, he was used to being the one giving orders, being given orders pissed him off.

As for the dark haired youth, he was glad to finally be out of bed and fully recovered, he was weary of the two, and wasn't going to pull Yu Jin's strings any further. It almost felt like having that strict father you have to keep living up to his expectations, no room for mistakes, one thing wrong and he'll be extremely disappointed, and even when you don't mess up, he still finds something to bark over. He resembled Guan Yu in a way.

* * *

Once they had hopped off, they set up in one of the empty houses to try again, it wasn't hard to find somewhere empty since the war had cleared out many of the homes, and many people had either ran away for somewhere they assumed was safer, or died on the way. The place was almost like a ghost town, no life to nothing but nature, or what's left of it, leafless trees, yearning for mercy from the burning heat that had dried out any source of water.

The streets were covered in filth and rotting corpses of either killed citizens or those thrown out by their own families as victims of disease. In fear of their own wellbeing and from the lack of knowledge about infections and how they spread, it was safer that way.

The Central African Republic had become a warzone for soldiers and a graveyard for the people, it was impossible to walk through the streets without getting a bullet right between the eyes.

As for their task, it was to collect Intel on the base located in the capital, Bangui. The organisation required data on their main supply of firearms and where they were getting the money to fund their war crimes. As simple as it sounded to just go and collect data, getting into one of the bases was close to impossible, and the last time they engaged in combat they had to retreat being outnumbered, and so on their way Guan Ping had acquired his leg injury.

This time something had to be done differently, there was no time to waste, otherwise they'd find themselves surviving on crumbs of food before starving to death, come the time backup arrives. HQ's response rates were simply ridiculous.

This time Yu Jin was determined to get the job done, Ping's to thank for that, he simply couldn't wait to get rid of him as he had swore to never take him on a mission again. That's if Ping wasn't going to die here, either way worked for the commander as long as he was out of his way.

Yu Jin had made it clear the first time, _every man for himself…_

 _No one misses anyone in the army,_ seeing people die became a routine, there was barely time to form attachments before the next guy was lying breathless, heart as still as stone. Love was for the weak a man of war would tell himself. If your emotions overrun your sense of rationality, then you've lost.

Men of war weren't allowed to love, or not in this lifetime anyway. What good is your love if you can't save them from what awaits them, and what good is love if you can't give them a sense of peace or stability? Men of war don't know peace; they were made to create it they claim.

And what peace is brought by murder?

Not one worth living to see…

* * *

The map was laid out across the floor, grabbing a pen Yu Jin marked a red circle, and paused contemplating on a few ideas in his head. Xiahou Dun and Ping watched curiously. Taking the lid of the pen again, he marked a few more circles, observing the pattern he paused seemingly more satisfied this time.

"Okay, listen up" He announced.

Dun leaned closer to the map, trying to presume what Yu Jin had planned. As for Guan Ping, he sat cross legged waiting patiently for what his superior had to say.

"I'm predicting the base will be here, so if we went around this way last time" He pointed on the map sharing his findings. "That means we stepped close, but not close enough, since there were too many guards swarming the outer border"

"What makes you think it's right there, where you've marked it?" Xiahou Dun interrupted.

"Well you see, here is the only big enough ground to maintain a military base, if they're supplying their men with firearms, they've got to have a big enough place to keep all that stuff, also, if it wasn't the base we're looking for, why else would it be heavily guarded, we couldn't even step close" Yu Jin explained.

Guan Ping listened attentively, his presence was almost invisible, since he didn't have much to say and was too inexperienced to even try.

"Hmm." Xiahou Dun nodded, seemingly persuaded by Yu Jin's theory. "Well then, supposing you are right, then where we trespassed could have been the main entrance, every building must have other ways to enter, so we could try going in through the back" The one eyed man added.

"That sounds reasonable" Yu Jin agreed.

Xiahou Dun took the pen off him, drawing an X, "Okay, so that's the main entrance. Then now we need a map of the facility to plan our next move"

"Right, I need to request HQ on this one" Yu Jin sounded displeased.

"Isn't there a faster way?" Xiahou Dun questioned, as he rested his chin in his palm, his gaze still dotting around the map.

"No, it's safer, they have the tech for it and only need to scope through their satellites" Yu Jin explained, pulling out his laptop to do so immediately.

Guan Ping remained observing quietly, he knew they didn't need him, but he still wanted to help if he could, however he knew Yu Jin wouldn't allow him since he didn't trust him with anything. It wasn't the feeling of being invisible that hurt, in fact Guan Ping liked it that way, he could recall the times Dun had told him about his adventures with Yu Jin, they'd been working together for years now, just the two, going around the world. Must be a great trusting someone to always have your back, just the two of you against the world. Guan Ping almost wished to be a part of that, but he knew he didn't fit. He was too far behind to catch-up, whether it was experience, age, or ability, he was lacking in all.

He looked away, drowning in his thoughts, and questioning how pathetic they were, the self pity he was feeling was uncalled for, he had been privileged more than most, being allowed to leave camp to scout on a secret mission on the other side of the world with two of the best commanding officers back at camp, no nineteen year old had been given that opportunity before. Remembering this, he tried to be more optimistic, thinking wouldn't it have been the same if any other officer cadet was here with both the Colonel and the Marshal of the army? The gap between an officer Cadet and a Colonel in itself was wide, let alone the Marshal.

It was no big question as to why Yu Jin was constantly frustrated with his presence, real war was no game, and one reckless mistake can cost you your life and the lives of those around you. It's not that Yu Jin cared whether he got himself killed however, since he constantly reminded him, and repeated, _you fall behind, you're on your own._

Yu Jin placed his laptop aside, he adjusted himself to lie down, and his head almost touched Dun when he rested it.

The one eyed man raised his brows. "What are you doing?"

"Just catching some rest before we move" He explained, resting his arms behind his head.

"What about the map?" Xiahou Dun asked.

"I've made a request; it should come through by evening"

Xiahou Dun nodded in affirmation, pulling the map closer, resuming to study it.

Guan Ping got up walking out for some fresh air. Yu Jin lifted his head watching questioningly. "What's his deal? He's strangely quiet" He asked, laying his head back down.

"How would I know?" Xiahou Dun replied avoidingly.

Yu Jin observed his expression, his head upside down.

"What? Why do you care?" Xiahou Dun snapped, not liking the accusing glares Yu Jin had given him.

"I don't" The Marshal remarked, turning over to usher the conversation was over.

Xiahou Dun rolled his visible eye; if Ping wasn't here wouldn't it have been different? Wouldn't Yu Jin have preferred to rest his head on his lap, like they used to. The way he laid next to him had brought back those memories. As much as he wanted to hold him, wrap his arms around him he couldn't say it. He knew he'd push him away like every time. Watching him, made him want to rest aside him, feel what it was like to be held by him, but it's like hoping on something that no longer exists.

 _The cruellest thing you could do to someone is make them feel loved and then leave them to struggle surviving in a colourless world different to what you taught them. Everything that was acceptable before is no longer that way, it's like being half alive,_

 _Why? Because you learnt to live with better, and then the struggle to go back to where you were hurts like hell, because you discovered happiness and even if it wasn't for long, it became as addictive as ever, overcoming that addiction was hopeless._

What's harder was seeing the person who once loved you, not love you anymore, you sleep on the same hard ground, you eat the same bread, and breathe the same toxic air. All of it was like before, except the feelings… Wouldn't it make you question the sincerity? Was it all a lie?

 _Why doesn't it move him?_

 _It's always the one who loves less that controls it all, and you're like a brainwashed love sick idiot who has no sense of logic, they control your life, how you feel and every thought becomes about them. But how does one save himself from falling so deeply?_

 _The world is full of people who throw the word love around so recklessly._

* * *

The evening had come by, and the two had packed what they needed to move.

Just as they headed for the door, Yu Jin paused letting out a loud sigh. "Why did you bring him?" He turned to Dun, referring back to the time they were assigned on this mission. Back then, Yu Jin was allowed to bring with him two soldiers as support, the Marshal wasn't too bothered and allowed Xiahou Dun to choose trusting him to make a good decision but somehow it didn't go the way he planned.

"Don't worry about Ping, he never dies" Xiahou Dun assured, acting almost as though Yu Jin was making a big deal out of nothing.

Yu Jin raised his brows, and stared at Dun's lack of seriousness. "Come again?"

"Trust me" Dun patted him on the shoulder and proceeded to walk on.

Yu Jin shook his head at his nonsense and followed agitatedly.

Just before they exit, they met Ping by the door, heavens know where he'd been since the morning. He walked right past them, not acknowledging either of them, as though he wasn't expecting them to take him with them.

Yu Jin turned around quickly. "Guan Ping, get my laptop" He instructed.

Guan Ping behaved neutrally, complying with the orders without really having a reaction. Yu Jin took it off him, and unlocked it using his fingerprint. "Look for the headset between the equipment, and let us know what you see on screen"

Guan Ping looked a little unsure as to why he'd given him that task, almost immediately worried about the difficulty of what he's asking him to do.

"Stay sharp" Yu Jin informed, not taking much longer to chat, and headed out with Dun to begin their searching. Of course that had made Xiahou Dun feel uneasy, not because he didn't trust Ping, but every interaction between him and Yu Jin always fired billions of questions in his head, and although he felt guilty for liking it, he was glad that Guan Ping was left watching over their equipment, that way he'd be alone with Yu Jin.

It took them a while to reach their destination. Meanwhile Guan Ping had packed and tidied everything stacking them by the wall. He made himself comfortable, pulling out the blanket as he sat in front of the laptop. It looked to be a chilly night. He wrapped himself up and took the device into his lap. Things were still calm by the looks of it. There was no detection of nearby motion on the screen. Guan Ping decided to play around with the device to familiarise himself with it, pretty much most of the programs and data files were locked to Yu Jin's finger print allowing no access. He sighed, as he felt himself slowly become bored. He knew he couldn't be, in a minute he'd have to be on his toes jumping.

He questioned himself as to why he wasn't scared. It was his first time being alone out here, maybe he was more scared with his commanders aside him, but maybe because the fear of dying together is greater than the fear of dying alone… Or maybe it wasn't that, it was only a month ago he had been deployed on a mission in the South African republic, a lot of things had happened very fast that year, he had also felt himself change along the journey.

And not in a good way.

It was a strange feeling… As though he wasn't himself anymore, hard to put into words but as though someone had disassembled him and hurriedly put him back together not careful to put the pieces back the way they were… That sort of feeling.

* * *

Further down the republic Yu Jin and Dun had finally met their journey's end. They had decided to go it stealth for a greater chance of survival as they were beyond outnumbered. Both the men had their Mk.22 handgun's reloaded with tranquilizers. Non lethal yes… risk of the soldiers being woken up which could get them in big trouble, but it is generally more quieter and saves bullets if you thought of it that way.

By half an hour all the soldiers within the vicinity of the back gate were snoozing like a bee in winter, so peaceful and quiet, Yu Jin to thank for that, as for Dun he had found it rather amusing and the two had been playing who can score the most downs, Yu Jin with the score of 34 and Dun with the score of 32. In total the place was littered in 66 bodies all fast asleep. Of course Dun had taken this chance to loot bodies and see what goodies he could find. Yu Jin had scolded him for that habit many times before but this time he didn't mind so much. Clearly declaring to be the winner had put him in a good mood. _War's just a game isn't it?_

As they entered the building the path was separated into three at the top and then there was a stairs leading downwards. "We'll have to split up" Yu Jin suggested not sounding too pleased with the idea himself.

"That's too risky" Xiahou Dun affirmed, tilting his head and cocking a brow as his eyes shifted between the stairs and Yu Jin.

"No choice!" Yu Jin declared, giving him a quick push on the arm, before he left for the stairs.

Dun bit his lips disagreeing with his commander's rash decision, but he proceeded to carry on with the job, carefully heading down the first pathway.

Whilst all of that was taking place Guan Ping' had disappeared without a trace. The signal had been cut off once he pressed down the screen, and Yu Jin wasn't planning on depending on him to begin with, as for Xiahou Dun, he had completely forgotten about him. Ecstatic.

However the son of Guan Yu had managed to handle things on his own. He had recognized the loud sound of the tank again approaching and so fled their base not actually knowing where to head off, to avoid it he had just followed his superiors into the base, and while it took them time to clear out, it was easier for him to catch up, as he found himself casually stepping over the litter of bodies, and probably also wondering… What on god's green earth had happened there?

He didn't take long to ponder on it; nevertheless he was now inside the building contemplating on how to find his commanders without getting himself killed. Either way he was dead. Something told him Yu Jin wouldn't have liked this idea.

He slipped his hand against the cold metal wall, taking slow quite steps down the stairs. The state of equilibrium here was unsettling. It only made things creepier and eerie. Either way he would have to hurry if he wishes to catch up with his seniors. Would be misfortunate if they left the base not knowing he had followed them in, to his disadvantage he was carrying a heavy bag, as he couldn't have left their things behind. He had packed most of the important equipment, or most of what his shoulders could carry anyway.

Just when he felt himself calm after walking for an hour with no sound, he jumped quickly behind a wall to hide. The sound of hard metal clang against the floor followed by the sound of someone struggling as though they were being choked followed. Guan Ping peeked his head to see a gun on the floor, he wasn't sure who it belonged to, but just as his eyes met with an approaching enemy soldier, he moved back to the wall again, pulling out a pistol from his belt. He released the hammer, closed his eyes for a second and prayed before opening fire at the man. He hadn't realised if he had shot him as he had closed his eyes the minute he pulled the trigger. Scared when he opened his eyes to find the man still alive, he shot again repeatedly till he fell on the floor. Not taking a minute to catch his breath he followed the sounds of struggle only to find it was Dun, he had dropped his weapon fighting the soldier and was now choking with a metal chain to his neck.

Guan Ping's first reaction was to gasp and immediately hold his breath before pulling the trigger again. He shot repeatedly again out of fear. This had been his first time shooting someone and maybe knowing Dun's life was on the line had scared him more.

"Sto-" The one eyed man attempted to restore his breathing, he walked up to Ping placing his hand on the pistol before disarming him. "You can stop now, he's already dead" He almost chuckled, leaning in to pull Ping closer to his chest.

Guan Ping's eyes were still fixed on the man even then, maybe killing a man wasn't that easy when push comes to shove.

The two had continued the path from there, on their way to meet Marshal Yu Jin. Guan Ping was still shook for most of the way. Dun had given him back the gun to defend himself, but only allowed him to remain behind him for most the way.

Crouching down as they entered a big hall. Jackpot! They had found the armoury. The room was filled with what looked like wooden shipment boxes stacked with all the firearms one can desire. Aside that, up ahead was a group of soldiers approaching. Yu Jin could be spotted taking cover behind a load of the shipments on the other side of the room.

Xiahou Dun turned to Ping. "You alright?" He verified. Guan Ping only nodded, clearly still affected by what had happened before, his face was pale and yellow at that. "Open fire after 3" Xiahou Dun confirmed, as he unscrewed the suppressor of Ping's hand gun before giving it back to him.

"One…" He reloaded his M4 and placed it in front of him at the ready. "Two…" He glanced at Ping to ensure he was ready but just before his mouth uttered _three._ Ping was already on his feet and begun shooting.

Xiahou Dun sighed quickly and proceeded to follow his lead.

Upon hearing the gunfire Yu Jin switched to his larger firearms and joined the fray. Of course the sound of gunfire was like music to his ears.

Most of the group that had headed in were bathing in their own blood for now however more enemy soldiers were still approaching.

Just before Yu Jin could run out to join the two, he was hit by a hard metal rod on the back causing him to fall on the floor in pain. "Agghhh" He let out a loud grunt, sounding as though he was annoyed more than pained. He flipped over to get up, the man swung the metal bar again aiming for his head, but the bullets worked quicker than his intentions. Yu Jin was in awe that moment, probably due to the thought of what could have been if that metal bar did hit his head, but that swiftly transitioned into annoyance at the idiot who continued to shoot the man before he could fall for the floor.

"Quit wasting bullets!" Yu Jin yelled, turning his head to search for the perpetrator only to notice Ping, his eyes immediately widened but only because of the soldier from behind the other boxes aiming his weapon on him, Yu Jin rolled quickly taking his gun and shooting at sonic speed. If it wasn't for his skill and lack of time needed to aim Ping would have been dead. Upon realising that Ping had almost stopped to thank the gods but there was no time for that. He quickly ran over to Yu Jin reaching his hand out to pull him up.

Yu Jin took it and sprung up to his feet quickly, only letting out a loud grunt once he was up. He was sure he'd feel that worst later. While Ping and Jin had been busy dealing with those who had entered through the fire exists, Dun had already cleared the front gate.

"You got the stuff?" Dun shouted over.

Yu Jin nodded, bending to catch his breath, once he was done, he strutted over to Dun in a way that conveyed he was about to begin his barking, but before he could open his mouth Dun jumped to explain "I did not give him the weapon" He disclaimed.

Yu Jin turned to Ping to question, but the youth immediately placed it into his hand and held onto him before he bent over to the ground. Yu Jin studied the gun carefully only to recognize that it belonged to him, placing his hand in his back belt he wanted to confirm that his assumption was correct and Ping had in fact stole it.

He furrowed his brows and tightened his lips ready to scold only to hear Ping produce a peculiar sound causing silence. He felt a surge from his gut and into his throat and the loaf of bread and tomato soup from earlier came spewing out covering the ground beneath him.

Yu Jin's nose wrinkled in disgust, while Dun chuckled as though it was a laughing matter. Well at least it shut Yu Jin up didn't it, then it must have been a laughing matter.

Once he was done, Xiahou Dun helped pull him up and provided him with water, and from there they proceeded to move as far away from that place as possible. They needed time to rest and tend to their injuries.

* * *

The journey had been long, and they had walked miles. Yu Jin the workaholic had ignored his body's calls for rest and continued to work away, reporting their findings to HQ.

As for Guan Ping he was barely over the long day he had had. The more he thought about it the more he felt sick again, but he was fairly quiet that evening.

Nevertheless Xiahou Dun took it to spend that night doing what he did best… which is to eat most of their food supplies while scratching on a strange cut he had acquired on his left arm. It was only a few hours after that his arm was swollen and the scab had increased in size and was beginning to form an unsightly yellow fluid inside. He had attempted to clean it earlier with antiseptics but it seemed like it was too late for that and the infection had festered quickly.

It only took the next morning for matters to get worst…

Yu Jin and Ping had been awakened by the sound of metal clutter hit the floor. Xiahou Dun had knocked their lined up guns over whilst attempting to reach for the wall for aid.

Guan Ping jumped up to check on him, while Yu Jin was much slower at getting up.

Guan Ping reached his arm slowly to help but the one eyed man was quick to flinch.

"Move! I think I've caught something" Xiahou Dun hit the wall, struggling to remain standing, as the earth below felt shaky. His face was ripped of colour, and frighteningly pale.

Guan Ping stepped back unsure of what to do however Yu Jin remained in his place observing from a distance.

The one eyed man began to cough excessively, sliding slowly against the wall to avoid crashing against the hard ground.

Guan Ping and Yu Jin watched helplessly, except Ping looked troubled while Yu Jin remained blank even now. Guan Ping moved his hands to aid him, except Dun flinched falling back faster, which caused Guan Ping to jump in distraught.

"Just, don't… don't touch me" He attempted to focus his eyes, however his vision was blurry, and as hard as he tried he saw nothing but black. That fall had hurt more than it should, he could feel his body still aching as though the pain wasn't fading. He was gradually getting worst and worst, he began to feel fatigued, and breathless, and then his body began to sweat heavily.

Guan Ping looked at Yu Jin for help, but he only stared back blankly. The youth ran back to the other room, throwing the stuff out of the bags, trying to find something that would help. The only thing he could think of was water, grabbing the bottle, he got up to his feet, only to be startled by a loud choke.

He ran quickly, looking over Yu Jin's shoulder who was now standing at the doorway, he saw Dun throwing up big lumps of thick blood. His eyes widened in panic, he walked over slowly, handing him the water, Ping looked horrified, while Yu Jin remained frozen like a statue. Still with no reaction.

Xiahou Dun tried to catch his breath, after being strangled by the blood that clogged his oesophagus. He reached out taking the bottle trying to avoid touching Ping's hand, whatever he had contracted looked deadly, the symptoms were immediate to show.

"Dun…?" Guan Ping called worriedly.

But the one eyed man, lay with no response, only the sound of his heavy breathing expressed his pain.

Guan Ping turned back to the door way where Yu Jin stood earlier. Looking back at Dun who didn't look like he would go far in that state, he ran back to the other room, surprised to find Yu Jin just sitting there as though nothing was happening.

Guan Ping let out a quick sigh, before heading back to scavenge through their supplies. He found, bandages, adhesive tape, clotting agents, syringes, water repellent heating blanket, shears, scissors, splints, eye shield, nasal trumpet and alcohol pads. There was only one problem however; he had no idea what use they could even have. Grabbing the pile, he walked over to Yu Jin, placing them in front of him. "Any idea what I could do with these?" He asked, his voice trembling, he found it hard to remain calm.

Yu Jin looked up at him slowly, "How would I know?" He replied bluntly.

Guan Ping huffed, picking up the items, to move them next door. "Dun…"

The other remained shaking tremendously with no response.

Guan Ping bent down next to him, slowly lifting his shirt over his head to help him to cool off. Guan Ping took his hands, attempting to calm the shaking. Probably a stupid move considering Guan Ping had no form of protection on him. But if he cared he would have minded. Dun's hands were excessively warm, and felt swollen. Upon noticing this, Ping began to worry; it obviously meant Dun's blood pressure was really high, and the excessive sweating would put him at risk of hyperthermia, which could lead to death, even an idiot would know that one, didn't take a genius to figure it out.

Guan Ping poured some cold water, into one of their food bowls, dipping a towel inside, he wiped down Dun's chest gently, attempting to help cool him down, but the cold water poured on him was quick to turn warm, from the intensive heat his body was releasing. The son of Guan Yu, moved Dun's hair back, and gently dabbed his face, then proceeded with his neck. Studying the other's peculiar looking skin; Guan Ping lifted his arm, only to find strangely dark bruises in random places. The sight was only horrifying from the detail; each bruise had several red veins evident by it, in a extremely strange form. Guan Ping traced one of the bruises with his fingers only to find the skin strangely tender.

 _Father help…_

Guan Ping resisted the urge to place his head on Dun's chest and cry, but what good would that do him? It hurt to sit and watch, not able to do anything to ease the pain. He crawled over to his feet, untying his boots, as a tear trickled down his cheek. Guan Ping blinked repeatedly; trying to calm his wet eyes and went on to take off the other boot placing it aside. He also unbelted his trousers, and covered him in a light blanket around the waist. He resumed dabbing his body with cool water. Unfortunately due to the heat the water wasn't cold enough to be effective. But luckily the ground was cold, though it was extremely uncomfortable.

The officer cadet walked out the house, but looking around was enough to convince him being inside was better, the village was an empty ghost town, there was nothing he could bring him to aid his suffering. He returned in examining the colonel's arm, he took it gently into his lap, pulling out a needle, he slowly attempted to make a whole in the swollen cut, observing Dun's face for a reaction, but luckily it was quick and painless, he dabbed it attempting to press out the yellow liquid, he rubbed the area with antiseptic, holding his breath and trying his best to do it gently. Once he was done he wrapped a bandage around it hoping it would prevent further contamination.

A while after cleaning his hands and the other equipment, he returned to sit by him. He felt his arm to see if the swelling had gone down, but the muscle was abnormally stiff. Ping slowly slid two of his fingers on his neck to check his pulse, but was startled by Dun's sudden jump; he sat up breathing heavily almost as though he was awaken from a nightmare.

"It's okay" Guan Ping assured, helping him to lie back down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you…Dun?" Guan Ping was confused; it was like he was awake then but now he was knocked out again. "Dun?" Guan Ping called again.

To his relief he was answered by a quiet "hmm"

He moved closer, placing Dun's head in his lap. "Just try to breathe" He whispered, dapping the towel in cold water to return it onto his head.

"You should-" Dun attempted to say something but he was out of it. Probably something about Ping needing to move away.

His breathing was unnerving…

By evening Ping had left him to sleep checking on him every few minutes.

He was now in the other room sharking Yu Jin.

"What?" Yu Jin scoffed.

"Nothing sir" Guan Ping replied sarcastically.

"Do I look like a doctor to you?" The marshal rolled his eyes.

"You're unbelievably despicable" Guan Ping snarled, turning his back and closing his eyes, probably praying for a way to get out of this.

Yu Jin only chuckled at the statement causing Ping to turn back irritatedly. "Ironically if that was you, he wouldn't be sitting here doing nothing"

"But that's not me" Yu Jin shrugged his shoulders carelessly.

"I really fail to recognize what he sees in you, personally… I hate you" Guan Ping stomped away attempting to find something to distract himself with, he pulled out a notebook from his bag.

Yu Jin sighed, before walking over to him. "Hey listen…" Guan Ping looked up and Yu Jin squatted down taking his hand and placing a gun in it. "It has one bullet. Hurts you too much to see him like that shoot him, if you can't take watching it, shoot yourself, choice is yours" He sprung up and walked away.

Guan Ping bit his bottom lip holding back the urge to reload the gun and shoot his commander on the spot. He threw the gun aside and walked out hoping to calm himself from committing something stupid.

After a walk in the cold night breeze the anger had transitioned into upset. Ping had returned and sat by Dun for most of the night, as sleep came by, he found himself taking comfort in him, resting his head on his chest, and holding him close.

Did he care about getting sick? Probably not, because emotional irrationality defeats logic.

Guan Ping woke up to the loud sound of chatter, standing up quickly he stumbled against the wall attempting to regain his balance. Paramedics! They were here for the colonel. The men proceeded to take him onto the aircraft. Guan Ping watched finally feeling at ease. " _Thank you father…"_ He said to himself.

Yu Jin stood aside him hand saluting as the aircraft took off, Guan Ping wasn't too happy about the gesture as he didn't like to admit that Dun was fallen solider, he didn't want to think about the odds of survival.

Yu Jin walked back into the house and Guan Ping followed quietly.

"I envy you" He uttered.

Yu Jin paused the packing and turned to him. "Oh yeah? Why's that"

"You just plainly don't care" Guan Ping declared, as though he had rested his case with the cold hearted commander.

"Compelling." Yu Jin replied sarcastically resuming to pack their equipment. "Upset ya did i?"

"No… Not at all" Guan Ping spoke defensively. "I'm more disappointed than anything" He threw his bag on his shoulder.

"You seem to forget we're in an army" Yu Jin marched towards him, stopping only when there were a few centimetres between them. "You want to cry go home to your mother"

Guan Ping moved his face back; he was always uncomfortable when Yu Jin did that. "I actually looked up to you" The younger man said quietly.

"Well don't." Yu Jin dismissed.

"I hate you" Guan Ping turned his face the other way.

Yu Jin stepped back like he had no reply to that. "Let's just get moving" he commanded leading the way.

Guan Ping finally exhaled, letting go of his breath.

He then slowly followed, and the two were quiet for most of the way.

As usual they set camp in another abandoned house, they were almost done with the mission, just one more task to go, but Yu Jin knew he couldn't do this one on his own.

Guan Ping looked bluer than he was in the morning, probably still thinking about Dun and wondering if he would make it, as he was in pretty bad state.

Yu Jin stood up pulling out a gun and aiming it at Ping. "Get up and defend yourself!" He ordered.

Guan Ping stared blankly.

"Bang! shot you, come on, get up and disarm me, go again" Yu Jin instructed.

Guan Ping continued to stare at him confusedly, right now his mind couldn't focus on anything.

"You need a confirmation?" Yu Jin snapped his fingers, "Wake up! He's probably dead, and you will be too"

Guan Ping got up slowly, a troubled expression crossed his face. His brows furrowed, as he turned to look at Yu Jin, clearly still upset with him.

"Come on disarm me" Yu Jin urged, pointing the gun towards him.

Guan Ping took a small step forward, both hesitant and unsure. "I don't know how" He spoke quietly.

"Just try, come on" Yu Jin encouraged, remaining to hold his ready position.

Guan Ping walked forward trying to grab the gun out of his superior's hand, but Yu Jin's reflexes were sharper than his own, he received a hard strike to the abdomen, and thanks to the thickness of Yu Jin's army boots it sure as hell hurt. Guan Ping laid on the ground clasping the area of pain. He let out a quiet grunt. "Ahhh"

Yu Jin paced over to him, holding his arm out to help him up, "Not fast enough, come on"

Guan Ping took his hand and jumped back on his feet, he didn't look hesitant this time, that kick was hard enough to wake him up, observing Yu Jin's body posture before he moved, he was more focused now.

"Hands above your head" Yu Jin commanded.

Guan Ping complied, walking slowly towards him with his hands up.

"Hold on there, if I feel that you're a threat I'd shoot you, you don't get closer" Yu Jin informed. "I'll get closer if I want to" He slowly approached.

Guan Ping flew for the gun again, but Yu Jin lifted his hand before he could take it, and pushed him back using his support arm causing him to fall back again. He walked over, resting his foot on Guan Ping's chest. "Bang, you're dead" He announced sarcastically, aiming the weapon and pretending to shoot.

Guan Ping let out a sigh, before moving his superior's foot away, he stood back up for round three.

"Instead of trying to take the weapon, try stopping me from using it" Yu Jin suggested, resuming to his earlier position. "Try begging for your life"

Guan Ping rolled his eyes, but eventually complied, he lifted his hands above his head. "Please don't kill me" he said mockingly.

Yu Jin raised his brows waiting for more.

"I have kids and a wife depending on me" Guan Ping added pulling an unconvincing expression.

Yu Jin rolled his eyes trying to keep his cool "Okay so you look more vulnerable now, your attacker feels more in control, so he might step closer" Yu Jin walked forward cautiously. "Just lose the face and try something more believable" He shook his head at the nonsense. Yu Jin walked behind him. "You had your chance and lost it" Pointing out Ping should have attempted to disarm him then. He locked him in his arm with the pistol to his jaw. "Get yourself out of this one" He told him.

Guan Ping attempted to stamp on his toes using his heel but Yu Jin moved his foot quicker. He attempted to lift his leg to kick his knee but Yu Jin had him locked too tight.

"Come on this is basic combat skills" Yu Jin reminded.

Ping bent forward quickly, managing to slightly loosen the marshal's grip enough to pull out his arm and elbow him in the chin.

Yu Jin was startled by the hit, he hadn't expected that one, he looked more impressed than anything. But by the way he was feeling his face was like he was checking as if it was still intact.

"Sorry" Guan Ping said half heartedly.

"I love your sincerity" Yu Jin scoffed, flipping his foot behind Ping's and twisting Ping's leg back causing him to trip.

Guan Ping sighed irritated that he got him again.

Just before he could sit up he sat on top of him. Guan Ping attempted to push him off. "I'm probably 4 times your weight…" He took Guan Ping's wrists with one hand and placed them above his head. "You nervous?" He asked, as Guan Ping didn't look comfortable with the intimacy. "Try to escape, you'll probably find that you can't free your hands, so use your hips" He instructed. Guan Ping complied managing to push him back, but instead of defending himself. He turned on his stomach attempting to crawl free. But Yu Jin grabbed his arms behind his back slamming him down to the floor. "You've lost again" He declared.

"You never turn on your stomach; you completely lose control that way. Push me off, throw a punch my away, aim for the face, the eyes, free yourself through attack" Yu Jin sighed, getting off the cadet beneath him. "Come on up on your feet"

Guan Ping sat up to catch his breath, he could swear he had enough beating for one night.

"Back to disarming, get rid of the gun" Yu Jin pulled the gun out his holster and threw it into Ping's hands.

Guan Ping lifted the gun up only to have it kicked out of his hand. He clenched his fingers in pain; he almost felt his fingers fly away with it.

"You're not holding it tight enough" Yu Jin picked the gun up and placed it firmly into Ping's hand. "Look, watch your opponent's movement" He tightened Ping's hand onto the gun. "Your life depends on this, without your weapon you decrease your chance of surviving, If I kick or move my hand at it, your reflexes should be quicker" Yu Jin pushed Ping's hand back, "Move it back when your opponent reaches for it, defend it to defend yourself, you always wanna avoid hand to hand combat, your opponent will most likely have another weapon on him"

Guan Ping nodded in affirmation.

"Now you disarm me" Yu Jin took the weapon back, putting it back to the holster and pulling it out again.

Guan Ping pushed his hand down, but Yu Jin pushed him back to re aim but before he could pull the trigger Ping released the magazine. Yu Jin dropped the gun to the floor in relief. "We're done!" He walked off ushering for the training to be over. Guan Yu had taught him that one, if you can't disarm your opponent, prevent them using their gun.

Guan Ping sighed too feeling better after the brief practice. Yu Jin had a way with training, it was more like pressurising or interrogation. In Ping's case he obeyed in fear of getting beaten up, though he still got his fair share of kicks and punches, he was sure to sleep hard tonight.

* * *

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 **Chapter 4 will be a continuation of this chapter, part 2 so no time skips!**

 **Till next time ^-^ Ciao!**


	4. Second Shot, Two Down

AN: Hi! Just like I promised here's the next chapter I hope you guys like it ^-^

* * *

Chapter 4: Second shot, Two down.

* * *

 _In the year 2053 – Bangui, Central African Republic_

* * *

"Try to catch some rest, we'll move at midnight" Yu Jin informed, laying back against his back pack, he took out his Agram 2000. A small but handy submachine gun, personal favourite for the commander due to its fast rate of fire.

Guan Ping lay down and covered himself with the blanket, though he was tired he remained wide awake, there was no use attempting to sleep now, after all there was only 2 hours left till midnight. He rolled onto his right side, observing his commander polishing his guns. "What's the plan?" Guan Ping murmured.

"There is no plan." Yu Jin dismissed.

Guan Ping sat up, cocking his brow.

Yu Jin glanced at him with a slight smirk on his face. "What? There is no plan, we'll just go with the flow"

Guan Ping's brows furrowed, somehow that didn't sound assuring, but he chose to not argue it further, the sooner the better right? He wanted to leave this place after all. He stood up taking a big stretch. "Why don't we move now?" He suggested.

"Fine by me" Yu Jin shrugged. He was fast onto his feet, eager to use his newly polished firearms.

Guan Ping attempted to put on his holster, but Yu Jin felt the need to help him, pulling him closer to him using his belt suddenly. "I can do it myself" Guan Ping insisted. But Yu Jin chose to ignore him, tightening the holster around him and ensuring it's secured. Guan Ping watched him the whole time but Yu Jin's eyes didn't meet his own and once he was done he went on to pull out more of his firearms from his bag. That backpack was like a treasure chest of guns and goodies, and it was evident that Yu Jin favoured his stash, from the way he treated it, almost like his own baby.

He threw an M12 Guan Ping's way, and since he didn't warn him, Guan Ping barely caught it, which resulted in him receiving a death glare for getting a scratch on it. Guan Ping rolled his eyes, picking it up and fitting it into his larger holster pocket. Yu Jin placed the second one on Ping's bag, wise choice if you don't want a scratch on that on too. Guan Ping picked it up adjusting it into the other pocket. While Yu Jin was heaved with holsters, two around each leg, upper and lower, one around the chest and one around the waist, Ping was only allowed one around his waist. Probably easier in terms of movement, but Yu Jin valued his weapons more than his life.

Yu Jin pulled out the rest of the weaponry inside his back pack emptying all the magazines, and getting rid of pretty much everything except his laptop and blanket.

The two munched on the leftovers of food on their way, and by the looks of things it was like this could be their last mission, promising right? If they make it out alive that is.

As they continued to walk Yu Jin was relieved to see a barrel of water where he threw all the bullets to prevent them from being used in case someone did find their guns.

Guan Ping felt overwhelmed to be given this much freedom so fast, he was almost starting to like not being allowed to carry a weapon, the scenes from before were reoccurring in his head making him feel sick again. He attempted to focus his head and ignore it.

"Get down!" Yu Jin commanded, taking cover behind a half broken brick wall. Guan Ping crouched beside him but without warning Yu Jin rose back up and opened fire. Guan Ping gasped quietly, hoping this goes as smooth as possible. Yu Jin was known for his recklessness. That was usually why he needed Dun, the latter was much wiser than his commander who preferred a hasty approach.

Yu Jin blew on the cap of his overheated weapon once he was done. "Come on let's move" He walked around the wall not taking longer to ensure the area was cleared.

Guan Ping pulled out his M12 before proceeding to follow him, a man appeared on their right, but just as Ping was about to ready his weapon, Yu Jin's arm stretched right and man down! "Try reloading your weapon beforehand" He scolded. Ping was becoming uncomfortable with Yu Jin's behaviour, he barely flinched or jumped, while Ping panicked the minute he noticed someone. Yu Jin wasn't scared of death, but arrogance could beat experience any day.

"After 3" Yu Jin told him as the approached the next area. Guan Ping nodded, awaiting the signal.

"One"

"Two…"

And Guan Ping was up on his feet firing, the marshal resisted the urge to smack him with the back of his weapon on the head, but just then he spotted more men approaching from behind them, Using his support arm he quickly grabbed Ping from the waist swinging him to face backwards while he took his place, perfectly timed as though Ping hadn't stopped firing.

Guan Ping was almost confused for a few seconds, wondering on how he got there and where he was, but he continued to shoot anyway, that wasn't the weirdest thing he had encountered by far.

They had the upper hand for a while, for a while until the tank showed up again, from there on they fled the area instead.

Yu Jin and Ping paused to catch their breath, the two men were slanted against a wall breathing heavily. "That tank is constantly on to us" The marshal pointed out.

"Maybe it has a tracker or some kind of motion detector" Guan Ping suggested. "It does seem to be following us"

Yu Jin's eyes lit up when he realised. "The laptop!" He exclaimed, pulling it out and tapping away at the key board quickly.

Guan Ping observed him making an assumption of what he was about to do.

Slamming the screen down quickly, he threw it through the window into one of the houses.

"Run! It's going to self destruct" Yu Jin yelled, and the two rushed to as far as they could, both jumping when they heard an explosion, it was loud for such a small device.

The journey didn't end there, the two men continued to walk till daylight came through, and when their feet could no longer carry them they settled into one of the houses.

* * *

Guan Ping laid his head back letting of a sigh of relief, _"finally a chance to rest"_ He told himself.

Yu Jin crawled into the blanket next to him, as that was all they had now, and something about that made Ping feel uneasy. Maybe they were too quick to judge whether they needed the equipment they had disposed off. Guan Ping sunk down into the blanket, and rolled onto his side trying to tell himself he shouldn't worry, for now he should only sleep. He felt Yu Jin's back against his own, and something about it felt comforting, his body was warm, and considering the situation they were in, they only had each other.

Guan Ping turned onto his other side facing Yu Jin's back, he found himself fascinated by his commander's hair, maybe that was the first time Yu Jin had made himself that comfortable when preparing for sleep ever since they had left camp. His hair looked soft and silky, tempting to touch but Ping tried to remind himself that was Marshal Yu Jin in front of him. While he was caught in thought the commander had turned around finding him staring at his back.

Guan Ping swallowed a lump in his throat, and quickly attempted to hide his face by turning the other way but Yu Jin shifted himself so that he was on top of him. Ping wasn't sure about what to think or how to feel about it but he could feel the nervousness take over him, he stared blankly at the other, wondering what he was trying to do, but Yu Jin didn't take long to reveal his intentions, sliding his fingers into Ping's hair to pull his head back, and went in for a rough kiss.

Ping felt himself become tense holding his breath until Yu Jin pulled back, the usual, blank hard to read expression on his face. Guan Ping held onto his shoulder as to give permission since his mouth had froze, Yu Jin went in for the second one, adjusting himself this time so that he was right against Ping's chest when their lips met. He was surprised when his love was returned and before they both knew it, it was turning into a heavy make out session.

The second time the commander pulled back to catch his breath, he studied Ping's face, and if it wasn't for the light Ping would find himself less embarrassed by how clear they could see each other. This time however Ping turned his face sidewards before Yu Jin could lock lips with him causing the latter to look puzzled as to why he avoided him, once he sat up, Guan Ping took his hand off his hair, sitting up also. That was it. He was hurting him without realising; Yu Jin had a way with being aggressive with everything.

Guan Ping's gaze turned down, as the closeness was causing him to feel embarrassed. He still managed to do more than what he did with Dun, but maybe because the embarrassment he felt when it was Dun was due to loving him, while in this situation it was just the intimidation of it being his commander.

Yu Jin cupped his chin in his hand raising it up, Ping's lips parted before he touched Jin's. The older man pulled his body closer against him. Just as Ping was about to close his eyes into the kiss, Yu Jin paused, biting his lips eagerly he took a few more seconds to catch a glimpse of Ping's heavy eyes, then he went in for it.

The lip movement was slow and passionate at first, until Ping felt him push his tongue past his lips and into his mouth. It took the younger man a few seconds longer till they found their rhythm.

 _And by god he tasted good._

The fourth time Yu Jin had moved the younger man's hands so that they were on his hair, while he allowed his own to trace back and forth the tender skin of his back and chest.

Ping was allowed to entwine his fingers through his locks, and just like he thought, his locks were soft and tidy, the same way they were in a bun. But maybe he preferred it this way, let go and free.

Both of them knew this was going too far but neither was going to tell the other to stop, they both awaited the other to say it, but either of them would be lying if they said they didn't want it. But at the same time it was wrong, and they had made an unspoken agreement that that was the case.

Yu Jin pushed him back, so that he was lying on top of him, he shifted Ping's legs so that they were around him and he was between them. The younger officer was beginning to feel overwhelmed but Yu Jin himself didn't need to take it that far.

Guan Ping felt butterflies in his stomach but he would have never assumed Yu Jin felt the same way, the latter went in for the last one he told himself, a slow and sensual kiss and Ping returned a more passionate one, but Yu Jin only took it as a challenge urging his lips harder against his lips. But then he moved back since neither of them was going to put a boundary, but Ping wrapped his arms around his neck pulling him down against him, and the commander took it from there to wrap around him tighter, he rested his head against his shoulder, relaxing against him.

As heavy as he was, it was warm and comforting. Yu Jin told himself he shouldn't have but he still didn't budge, and the two were slowing dosing off to sleep in each other's embrace. Ping didn't allow himself to think too hard about it, he convinced himself it'd be gone like it never happened when he'd wake up.

Guilt or whatever, he needed it, or maybe wanted it, but neither mattered for now, neither mattered till it was back to obliging with the rules, commander and soldier, marshal and cadet.

A wide gap for love, but no one mentioned love.

* * *

"Marshal… Yu Jin…. Yu Jin wake up" Guan Ping shook him but the commander was in deep sleep. "Yu Jin…" Guan Ping attempted to crawl free but his commander's weight was too much for him to shift. Guan Ping sighed loudly, but that wasn't enough to wake him up, a random urge to punch him awake or pull his hair came to him, now that the need for love and comfort was gone, now they were back to Ping and Commander Yu Jin. Yu Jin turned his head so that his nose was pressed against Ping's cheek.

" _I don't know why he looked cuter yesterday"_ He told himself. "Yu Jin!" Guan Ping yelled down his ear, and then held his breath presuming he might regret that action.

"Why are you yelling" Yu Jin grunted irritatedly, and only jumping up when he realised the way his arms were wrapped around him, almost like he just came to his senses. Guan Ping stared blankly as Yu Jin stretched his neck left and then right, almost like he was expanding it for his barking to begin. "Did your father not teach you to respect the sleeping, why do you have to yell like an animal!" Yu Jin scolded.

Ping blinked a few times, that was not the man from yesterday night. As the commander quietly packed their supplies, Ping remained seated in the blanket refusing to help, probably throwing a strop because he yelled at him. Yu Jin might have met his match when it came to pettiness.

Just as he was finishing up, Ping stretched his feet before he got up, kicking something that produced a metal clang against the floor. He stood up, lifting the blanket to find the source, only to discover a close to empty hip flask on the floor.

Guan Ping stared at it with half lidded eyes. Picking it up, he clenched it for a few seconds before throwing it at Yu Jin. "Really commander? Alcohol? Makes a lot of sense"

Yu Jin put down what he was doing slowly picking up his flask and launching it back Ping's way even harder, luckily it didn't hit, but right after Ping found himself retreating against the wall with his commander above him. Ping was probably saying his prayers in his head that minute. Yu Jin grabbed his collar pulling him closer to him. "Who am I?" He whispered harshly, the intimidating threatening type of whisper.

"Commander Yu Jin" Guan Ping muttered.

"Louder I can't hear you" He smiled sarcastically.

"Commander Yu Jin!" Guan Ping yelled, flinching when he pushed him back against the wall.

"And who are you?" He asked.

"Ping…"

"Ping who?" Yu Jin asked.

"Ping, just Ping, spear me! I apologize!" Guan Ping pleaded.

"Okay just Ping, don't forget your place" He fixed his collar in an unsettling calm way. He let him go and walked away, but Ping had a feeling he wasn't safe yet, and he was right, the hip flask came flying in his direction again, but he managed to avoid it again.

"Pick up the damn bottle!" Yu Jin yelled, before stomping off to pick up his bag.

Guan Ping picked it up mumbling in his head this time; he'd be lying if he said he wasn't scared.

 _By god what happened to cuddly Yu Jin?_

The two strolled around aimlessly, the usual quiet walks, until it was heard again. The tank, except this time they didn't hear it approaching, they heard it shooting down a house, and it was the explosion that had altered them of its presence.

But that wasn't the strange case of the matter; it was the sound of people yelling after. They hadn't seen many citizens upon their arrival, so this was rather peculiar.

Yu Jin began to run and Ping followed, their target was to follow the screams. "Stay close!" Yu Jin instructed.

"Roger that" Ping replied not sound sarcastic for once.

It wasn't till the house next to them blew up that they realised how close the tank was. Both of them were attempting to look around but the dust was covering the air, and the marshal felt the need to grab Ping's arm to reassure himself that he was still beside him. They coughed their way out of the dust, and Yu Jin hadn't let go of him till then. Probably the only way to ensure he was behind him although it was a little too much for a soldier.

Yu Jin paused for a minute letting go off him, he drank the last few drops of alcohol in his flask before casting it into the rubble, Ping didn't seem too impressed with his commander's actions but he wasn't in a position to question it, and when he thought about it now, it was almost like he forgave him, he forgot about everything that happened with Dun, he reminded himself he shouldn't have been over it so quickly, but by the two days that had gone he almost felt like a wall between them has disappeared, though Yu Jin hadn't said much, he felt like he understood him better, better in a way of seeing his human side.

Lost in thought Ping snapped out of it when his eyes locked on a woman running across with a child in her hands. Both of their hearts sank, and that's when Yu Jin yelled out "Don't go there, stay out of the-!" But before he could finish the woman was through the door and an explosion happened.

The two watched the silence that followed, and the dust rising to the sky after the rubble had met the ground. Ping felt the world pause for a second, and he had closed his eyes to pray this wasn't the reality of the ugly world he was living in, but his thoughts were interrupted when Yu Jin took his arm and walked him to the house.

As much as he wished they were safe he didn't want to go in there and find out they were dead. However amongst the rubble laid the infant crying her eyes out yearning for her mother's comfort, and as loud as the cries were the more reassured Ping felt, it's like the loudness was a confirmation for him that she was still alive and breathing after watching everything fall to pieces.

Yu Jin had an unsettling face expression, it was rare to read a trouble look on his face, his usual dead eyes had more of a glow to them, but in a scary manner, it was more like a haunted dark glare at the child. His mind had wandered far, and though Guan Ping had called him many times he failed to hear him, but after a few attempts he turned slowly, almost lost and confused as though he was absent the whole time.

"Huh?" He questioned, his eyes narrow in a more pained manner, and it was only then that the crying of the child had sunk in, almost like the sound was faded in the background and had now gotten louder, but even then he didn't try to comfort her. He turned back to glance at the child as if he had just noticed her presence in the room, though he had been seated in front of her watching her cry for a while now.

"I can't find it? Where did you put it?" Guan Ping asked quietly, something about the mood was eerie. Ping had recognised the strange vibes coming from Yu Jin.

"Oh, check… check in all the pockets-" Yu Jin told him staring back in confusion, unsure of what he had asked him to get him or what Ping was even doing.

He turned back but didn't look at the crying baby in front of him, his gaze was fixed to the ground, as though he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Ping looked at him, growing tired of the cries and screams of the infant, why was Yu Jin not comforting her, why didn't he try to stop her crying?

Surely Yu Jin wasn't familiar with handling children but you'd think the way he was, the sound of loud cries would pester him but he appeared unmoved.

He pulled out his pistol from the holster around his chest, pressing on the release, allowing the magazine of the gun to drop into his hand, he played with it as though it was a toy in his hand. It was like a child who was trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle. He repeated himself over and over as though he was going to receive a different outcome every time the magazine fell into his hand.

The baby carried on to cry, and every minute of it sounded like hours of cries of pain and agony, it was like torture to both their ears, and though she was a child, it felt different. It felt as though her screams were filled with sorrow, but what sorrow could it be? What sorrow when she hadn't seen nothing from the world yet and was probably too young to recognise that her mother had just died from being crushed by the rubble of someone's home which fell down on her without warning taking away her life and leaving her child alone.

Guan Ping sat down on the ground, a cold empty feeling filled his chest. Though he felt the need to cry, his eyes were dry, it was the helplessness that teared him more. The feeling that there is nothing you can do… And for that second he hated life, saw it as a dark hell filled with suffering. He covered his face with his hands and closed his eyes, just like a child would, hoping for the monsters to go away. Except that didn't help him escape and not even for a second, her voice rang in his ears over and over.

Guan Ping almost thought he heard the hammer of the pistol click but the sound was muffled by the overly loud crying, and just then to confirm it Yu Jin had pulled the trigger, sounding a loud gunshot which had caused the crying to cease. Guan Ping gasped loudly, he stared at the lifeless small body which was now covered in blood wide-eyed, he was frozen right then, his face drained from colour unsure of what to think and how to feel. It took him a few minutes to process what had happened, he shot up when it kicked in almost too suddenly that he felt light headed and disorientated, struggling to reach Yu Jin, he grabbed his arm for support. Staring at the dead soul in front of them, he was still lost for words, his mind was buzzing and unfocused from shock. He still couldn't believe how Yu Jin could bring himself to do that, and what pained him more was he was as hard as a rock, no expression, no feeling, no reaction.

Yu Jin pulled his arm out of Ping's grip leaving him standing on his own, he made his way to their backpacks and swung his own one onto his back. "Let's get moving…" He ordered with a dead quiet tone.

Guan Ping fell to his knees unable to take his eyes off the dead girl. "Yu Jin why?" His voice sounded shaky and as though he was about to cry, but the older man had no response, instead he looked away from the girl as though he'd expect Ping to do the same and pretend it never happened.

"Yu Jin why? She's a little girl…" Guan Ping's voice sounded weak and though he had always despised Yu Jin, in that moment he hated him and wished he had never joined the military or came across him.

Closing his eyes earlier hoping for the monsters to go away only made him realise they could never leave, only because he was surrounded by them, all of them… Every living creature which claimed to be human but proved otherwise, hiding under human skin, wolves dressed in sheep's clothing, they were all just monsters.

Guan Ping wiped his tears with his sleeve, getting up to his feet he paced over to Yu Jin angrily grapping him from his clothes. "Yu Jin why?!" He yelled. Yu Jin swallowed hard, avoiding to look at the youth in the eyes, he frowned turning his head. "What are you?!" Ping's angry tone faded into a more quiet one.

Yu Jin closed his eyes for a second, grabbing Ping's hand's and removing them off him, he opened them again, leaning closer he pressed his forehead against Ping's but even when they were that close he didn't fully meet his gaze. "She has no one, who was going to care for her? Look around you Ping, this house isn't the only one that's turned into rubble. Where was she going to grow or what was she gonna become…?" He explained quietly. "The country's at war, there's no schools, no hospitals. She would grow up to the fear of not knowing whether she would make it till the next day or not, where would she get her food from, and above all she was going to take every step of her life on her own, no father, no mother, no brother nor sister. No one to protect her or guide her from what's out there, and then a day would come when she would wish it all ended"

"None of what you just said justifies what you did…" Ping argued angrily pushing him back from him.

Yu Jin gave off a tired sigh. "you're too young to see things for what they are"

"And even if? Maybe she would have made it, maybe she would have found-"

Yu Jin interrupted him before he could continue. "There's nothing for her to make it through, Ping there's people in this world that come to life their fate is sealed… they have nothing. I did her a favour…" Yu Jin threw his bag to the side and sat down the haunted look on his face from earlier had returned.

Guan Ping backed away from him. "You're not human…" He shook his head, both disappointed and shocked to be exposed to this heartless side of his commander. "You're sick" Guan Ping glared at the man with hurt and anger in his eyes.

"She's in heaven now…" Yu Jin muttered.

"Who are you to decide whether someone should live or not" Guan Ping asked.

"Ping we're taking away lives every day, we're killing people. Why's one life more valuable than another" The commander snapped at the lack of experience the youth had.

Yu Jin didn't have a reply to anything.

Guan Ping paced over to him down to his knees. "Why? How do you feel nothing? Where's your sense of morality" The son of Guan Yu became more quiet as he spoke, looking into the older man's eyes hoping to catch a glimpse of his soul, but it was like he was dead inside. Ping crawled closer to him, placing his head onto his lap. Yu Jin swallowed a lump in his throat; as he looked around the rubble. He wanted carry on like it never happened without feeling anything, just like he always did with every situation in his life.

It was Ping who had revived it in him and even though it may have been just for a moment, he couldn't remember the last time he felt this sad, his hardened heart had protected him from sorrow, but it had also deprived him of happiness, to be dead inside meant you felt nothing, never happy, never sad, stuck in between, just numb.

And the question remains, what had he done to his soul that it had become so dark and empty, hardened and cold as ice, or was it life that had done the favour.

He placed his arm around the younger man to comfort him, or maybe to thank him for bringing back what he had lost even if it was for a few minutes, he had missed what it felt like to be human again… If he had sold his soul at least he would have known who he gave it too, but that wasn't the case, he lost it and learned how to live without it.

Or maybe that's not what they call living.

As for Ping, it hurt a lot that night , feeling as though life had betrayed him, though he knew suffering was present, a part of him still believed life was beautiful with all its problems and pain, it's the beauty of making it through the roughest of times that kept you going and maybe even though there's no time to rest because things get tougher that's the beauty of it, you get tougher, you fight harder and you keep going.

In the end no one's heart remains that pure. And in the end, no one cries about the same things anymore. We all begin to live as human robots, without emotion, and without expression.

* * *

They hadn't moved far till noon, and Ping had been very upset and maybe Yu Jin also this time. Yu Jin was walking a head while Ping followed him slowly, both the soldiers were starving and exhausted but its not like they could find any source of food or human trace, they had attempted to follow the direction in which the citizens had fled once the tank showed up, but it's like they all vanished. At least if they were dead there'd be bodies but there was no clues for where they went or what could have happened.

Yu Jin paused suddenly, letting off a loud sigh. Guan Ping almost walked into his back, since his eyes were on the floor the whole time and he hadn't noticed him stop. Yu Jin sat down, and rested his chin on his palm closing his eyes to think of what to do.

Guan Ping frowned looking around, only taking notice of his surroundings now. The place was dead quiet, uncomfortably dead quiet. He took a minute to inhale and exhale at his own pace, the type of breathing carried out to ease off a heavy weight. He turned over to his hopeless looking commander who was still sitting in his place. "Marshal…" Guan Ping called.

"Hmm?" Yu Jin grunted as though he didn't want to be disturbed.

Guan Ping took a detour pacing over to stand in front of him.

Yu Jin opened his eyes as he felt Ping's shadow cover him from the burning sunlight. "What?" He squinted attempting to look up.

"You can change... I don't think you're a bad person" Guan Ping lamented.

Yu Jin bit his lower lip glancing to his side before looking back at Ping. "Your father… What's his occupation?" He asked.

Guan Ping raised an eyebrow wondering why Yu Jin would care. "He's a farmer… Why?"

"Maybe he should consider being a man of god and you can be his little helper" Yu Jin teased, grabbing onto Ping he pulled himself up and continued to walk.

Guan Ping wanted to slap himself for falling for that one, did he really think Yu Jin was serious for a minute there. "Yu jin!" Guan Ping yelled angrily, it was infuriating how he brought up his dad every now and then.

"Marshal Yu Jin!" He yelled back, pointing his finger at Ping, before resuming strolling again carelessly.

"Commander-" Guan Ping was about to scold but Yu Jin interrupted.

"Shut up with your nonsense, you're giving me a headache"

Guan Ping huffed angrily before stomping past him.

Yu Jin shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with me"

Guan Ping paused turning slowly. "Really commander?" He tried to remain as calm as he could while awaiting his response. "I could make a list for you, if that helps" Guan Ping suggested sarcastically. "Without disrespect-"

Yu Jin placed his finger on his own mouth. "Shhhhh" Guan Ping stared at him blankly. He then moved his hand to place it over Ping's mouth. "You look much nicer like that, don't talk so much" He smiled sardonically, and continued to walk.

Guan Ping wiped his face. " _Heavens grant me patience_ " He mumbled to himself.

Yu Jin pulled out a hip flask out his pocket. Guan Ping looked again at it to make sure his eyes weren't lying to him. "You're unbelievable!" He complained.

Yu Jin looked back at him and turned back shaking his head. Uncapping the bottle, he chugged down the alcohol.

"You can't drink away all your problems you know" He pointed out, letting off a tired sigh.

"What happened yesterday, I just woke up-" Yu Jin referred to waking up finding him in his arm.

"Oh no, don't you go there, you weren't that drunk when that happened" Guan Ping argued offended how he could lie about it. "You were drunk when Dun was sick, that's why you didn't react, but you do care" Guan Ping pointed out as though all the puzzle pieces in his head have matched together. "You know you might be a really good actor, but there's a limit, you can't hide that you're human"

Yu Jin rolled his eyes and huffed causing his bangs to fly up and come back down.

"Commander I just want to help you" Guan Ping confessed tiredly.

"Well maybe I don't want your help" Yu Jin dismissed turning to walk the other way to avoid him.

Guan Ping relaxed his shoulders, giving up completely. "I'm sorry…"

"Have you ever thought that I don't want your help, why do you want to help me, I never asked you" Yu Jin scolded.

Guan Ping had nothing to say back to that, he walked in the opposite direction where they were originally heading.

Yu Jin followed chugging down more of the alcohol. "And I don't drink away my problems" He insisted.

"Yes you do" Guan Ping murmured.

"I don't have any problems" He persisted.

"Yeah right" Guan Ping murmured sarcastically.

"Tch. You're my only problem" Yu Jing scoffed. Guan Ping rolled his eyes annoyedly.

"I'm drinking cause I'm starving, we don't have anything else" He yelled, placing the hip flask into Ping's hand and overtaking him to lead the way again.

Guan Ping hesitated for a second, he sniffed the drink, curly his nose in disgust. He held his breath and took down a big gulp, forcing it down. He pulled out his tongue in disgust right after, the taste was unbearable.

He rushed to catch up to him handing him the flask back. Yu Jin shook it to check how much was left, satisfied to find Ping hadn't drunk much. He looked to his right to find the cadet sharking at him irritably.

Yu Jin turned his face the other way to drink in peace. "Russian vodka" He announced.

After hours of walking they settled into a small abandoned house, it would be wrong to say they were resting, they were starving and cold. Yu Jin had his eyes closed and his head rested on his bag. Ping was seated a few meters away. His commander had gotten on his nerves enough for him to want to avoid him for the rest of the night.

"How can you even sleep?" He criticised.

"I'm not sleeping" Yu Jin growled, turning to face the opposite direction. "Is it judgement day?"

Guan Ping chose to ignore his sarcastic remark and their constant bickering had ended there for that day. The cadet rested his head on his knees holding himself close as he lightly shook. The hunger was adding to the coldness.

* * *

Just as they were about to leave Yu Jin threw his hip flask against the wall. "Go pick it up" He commanded.

Guan Ping furrowed his brows hesitant at first, then he complied but just as he turned around, Yu Jin had reloaded his pistol. "Hand's above your head" He instructed.

Guan Ping lifted his hands, something told him Yu Jin wasn't messing this time. Just as his hands reached past his hair…

Yu Jin took a few steps back and pulled the trigger hitting him in the right far side of his waist. Guan Ping fell back from shock, not shock that he shot him but a shock caused by the bullet ripping through his skin, he let off a loud wince of pain. "Aghhh" He pressed his hand hard against the wound.

Yu Jin rushed towards him taking off his jacket. Guan Ping closed his eyes resting the back of his head against the wall. The commander tightened the jacket around his waist and urgently headed for the door, but before he left, he threw over a fully loaded hand pistol his way. "Get yourself out of this one soldier" he saluted but paused when he heard the gun scrape against the floor and the hammer release. He turned around sniggering. "You're gonna shoot me? Go ahead, don't hesitate" Yu Jin encouraged.

Guan Ping aimed his gun as he breathed heavily.

"Aim for the middle, right here, in the head, I'll stand still for you" He closed his eyes and opened his arms out wide. "You can't do it can you?" He yelled. "You know your problem cadet, you're a coward" He snarled.

Guan Ping mumbled something, and Yu Jin paced over to him and bent down placing his ear close to his mouth. "Couldn't hear you from up there, what was that?" He whispered sardonically.

"You know your problem commander, you're an army dog, like what everyone else said, you're disgusting" Guan Ping shouted.

Yu Jin shook his head placing his hand over his lips mockingly. "Shhhh… I'd worry about myself if I were you, oh and one last thing, grow up. Good day soldier" He walked off not turning back after that.

Guan Ping banged his head with the wall multiple times and ceased when it hurt. He blamed himself for trusting that two faced psychopath. Wasn't it dumb to trust a man who had no sympathy for the man he knew for years, and then for an infant. What was he expecting exactly?

Hours later he had found that he had dozed off for a bit, he was woken by the sound of the ground shaking. Bad luck! The tank. He used the wall for support, struggling onto his feet, he clenched the wound with his left and readied his weapon with his right, he plodded out the door way only to see the tank behind him. His mouth fell open, and he felt his heart sink, but just above it in the distance a helicopter was approaching, his eyes widened, and for a minute he swung himself to face the opposite way and sprinted for his life. He almost forgot he was hurt all together, his fear overcame the pain, or maybe just an adrenaline rush for that moment.

The son of Guan Yu could swear he had never ran that fast in his life, but the tank was very fast and he could be blown up any minute, but that didn't look like what they were intending to do. The helicopter had already reached above his head, then he heard the voice of his obnoxious commander. "Look at you, you lil fucker, thought you'd be where I left ya, looks like you're in good shape" He remarked sarcastically.

Guan Ping took a detour, moving in between the houses to lose the tank of his tail, the helicopter had followed him even then. "Grab the damn ladder" Yu Jin threw down a rope ladder. Guan Ping had stretched his arm out as far as he could but he wasn't quite reaching the ladder even then and the helicopter was flying too fast.

To his surprise the tank had run over some houses and was back on his tail again. "Grab the damn thing! They're gonna blow us sky high!" Yu Jin yelled.

Guan Ping would have yelled back but right now he was in too much danger to respond to Mr smarty pants at the top. Though he was panting heavily he still continued to run at the same speed, taking a right turn between the houses again.

He was back on the road again, and he could hear the tank on its way to catch up. Yu Jin this time had gone out of his way to help him strangely enough, going down the ladder. He reached out his hand and though Guan Ping hated to allow him to be his saviour he still reached out to take it, but he only managed to brush of his fingers.

"Hurry the fuck up! We're flying too low" Huang Gai yelled from above.

Yu Jin reached out further this time, but Guan Ping was losing his momentum and the pain of his wound was catching up to him. "Come on you shit head, not now!" Yu Jin scolded, swinging back to build up enough power to reach him. However Yu Jin had took his hand and Ping wasn't really holding on. The marshal struggled to heave him up and still hold on using his other hand. "Commodore pull up!" Yu Jin yelled, but there was no response, as though he hadn't heard him. He grunted loudly, attempting to pull him up again. "Come on!" He called out, but Ping's grip was still loose and his hand was beginning to slip off. Yu Jin struggled to reach his combat pockets, pulling out hand cuffs, he wrestled his way to hold on and not drop Ping till he managed to hand cuff their hands together. Proceeding from there he tried to pull him up now, but to his surprise when he looked ahead, there was wall, and they were heading straight into it. "Pull up! Commodore pull! Do you hear him?!" He yelled his highest but there was still no response from the pilot. And the next minute…

Bang….

It all turned black…

Yu Jin and Ping woke up, both finding that their body was aching from that hard hit. Guan Ping took a few minutes to try and remember what happened as most of it seemed a blur. Yu Jin stood up yanking Guan Ping with him. It was only then he realised how unfortunate that hit was. Guan Ping stared at the hand cuff questioningly.

"Agghhhhh!" Yu Jin screamed irritably, kicking the wall.

Guan Ping pulled out a pocket knife placing it into Yu Jin's hand with half lidded eyes. He didn't have to say anything but Yu Jin almost imagined him tell him _"Who's the one that needs to grow up now"_

"We're gonna sit here and saw at it till it breaks huh?" Yu Jin snarled.

"Thank to the genius that cuffed us together" Guan Ping replied.

Yu Jin almost felt like he no longer trusted him, something felt different. He took the knife and sat down, placing a rock between the two of them, he began to sand down the metal. Guan Ping sat back, he had already lost a lot of blood and wasn't sure if he was going to make it.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would have put a bullet threw you brain" Yu Jin pointed out, but Ping didn't respond, he wasn't going to hear any of it, all he wanted right now was to return to camp alive. And even if he didn't try to kill him; he caused him enough pain didn't he. After hours of cutting away there was still no use.

Yu Jin threw the knife on the floor, as though he gave up. Guan Ping leaned down to pick it up dragging him with him, that pocket knife held precious memories. Yu Jin sighed as though he was annoyed that everything he did somehow upset Ping, but his pride wouldn't allow him to apologize.

"Come on" He declared, pulling Ping to keep up with him. Ping plodded after him; he had no energy left in him to lift his feet. As for Yu Jin he looked aggravated, he had three good reasons for this. One that they had fell off the helicopter and he was now stuck with Ping, two was he could have gone home but he chose to come back for him, and three the dumb decision to handcuff himself to him, if he hadn't shot him none of this would have happened in the first place. Call it regret? No Yu Jin claimed to never regret anything, even if he did deeply.

Guan Ping was starting to lose patience with his commander's lack of consideration, he couldn't walk any further yet he was still dragging him around. The cadet rushed forward grabbing Yu Jin to make him stop. The marshal huffed turning his head down, but that's when Ping's eyes lit up. He dragged his head down again, and Yu Jin rolled his eyes at what dumb idea the younger officer had in mind now.

Guan Ping purposely pulled the bobby pin out his hair, and Yu Jin bit his lips to stop himself from cursing. The dark haired boy stuck it into the keyhole of the hand cuffs, fiddling with it for a few seconds till it became loose. Yu Jin looked relieved. But Ping didn't care to show that he was just as glad. He returned the pin to him and walked off in the opposite direction.

"Where you going?" Yu Jin called out.

"As far away from you as my legs can carry me" Ping hissed.

"We have to find the helicopter!" Yu Jin reminded.

"Go find it yourself, and leave me the fuck alone!" Guan Ping responded.

Yu Jin couldn't stand rudeness but he swallowed his pride for that moment and followed him even then.

"I thought I told you to fuck off" Ping snarled.

"You're gonna die" Yu Jin rolled his eyes, walking next to him.

"I never asked for your help, I can manage on my own" Guan Ping insisted shoving him to walk in the opposite direction.

Guan Ping jumped at the sound of a gunshot, and probably got startled more that he hadn't seen the man Yu Jin shot down. "You still flinch at the sound of gun shots" Yu Jin pointed out, contradicting the other's earlier statement.

Guan Ping continued to walk choosing to ignore him. His heart rate was still fast from earlier.

Yu Jin huffed marching after him. "Halt right there soldier, that is an order!" He yelled angrily.

The cadet paused and was on the verge to turn around before a voice came from nowhere.

"Drop your weapons and lift your hands up where I can see them" The man commanded. He somewhat looked more important than a normal solider, probably a commander of some unit or something, but there was no one else with him.

The two complied, with no intentions to actually obey however. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" The man asked, he himself looked like a mercenary of some sort or maybe belonging to a private organisation, but he sure didn't belong in Bangui.

"I could be asking you the same question" Yu Jin replied.

"You are in no position to do so" The man responded angrily, pointing the gun into the Marshal's jaw.

"What is he to you? Your son?" The man asked pointing the gun at Ping instead.

"He's my commander" Ping replied defensively.

"I'm not that old" Yu Jin narrowed his eyes irritably, but without further conversation, Yu Jin punched the man in the stomach causing him to wince in pain, the marshal disarmed him pushing the man back to make sure he had the advantage. Yu Jin narrowed his eyes, as a mark of victory.

"Ping take your gun and go" Yu Jin commanded.

Guan Ping nodded taking his gun and walking away quickly, but just as he was leaving he heard the sound of Yu Jin grunting irritably.

"Not so fast! Drop the gun and get low" The man commanded. Guan Ping turned around slowly lowering the gun, the man was able to take back his weapon. "He's injured, he won't last long" The man reloaded his weapon. Ping's eyes widened, but Yu Jin was fast to react, moving the man's hands to shoot in a different direction. But to his misfortune, the bullet was much faster than his action and he ended up taking the bullet to the leg. Guan Ping gasped in his mind; he quickly crawled to his weapon, and closed his eyes the minute he pulled the trigger.

Bulls eye!

Perfect headshot, Yu Jin studied the man before he fell in front of him, still in awe at how straight that shot was. But it was only a few minutes after that he also hit the ground, by the close distance that bullet had gone in deep. Guan Ping crawled towards him. " Yu Jin!" He exclaimed.

"What irony, I did end up shooting myself in the leg didn't I" He confessed laying his head back.

"Shhhh, don't say anything" Guan Ping placed his hand on his mouth, he looked around in panic, but there was no one in sight. He crawled to his leg to look at the bullet but it was too drowned in blood to study its condition. He took his knife from earlier, ripping a part of Yu Jin's trousers, horrified at its terrible condition.

"It might-" Yu Jin attempted to speak but Ping was quick to interrupt him.

"Don't worry we'll get out of this… Some how" He tried to assure him.

Yu Jin let off an unserious laugh "I'm not worried"

Guan Ping sighed. "No listen, I'll help you walk, come on, try to get up" He took his hand but Yu Jin refused to make any effort.

"Ping just leave." He placed his hand on his face then pushed it, and closed his eyes.

Ping took his hand. " Yu Jin please, don't do this"

"go home" Yu Jin spoke his eyes still closed.

"I'm not leaving you behind" Guan Ping insisted, clenching his hand.

"I hope you're not convinced I took that bullet for your sake" Yu Jin denied, it was just not in his nature to admit to doing good, even on his death bed telling him he did a good thing was like you were insulting him.

Guan Ping gave a half smile and looked around again, reaching for the nearest gun reloading it and placing it into Yu Jin's hand. "Stay alive you, that's an order commander, I won't be gone too long" Guan Ping rushed, taking another gun for himself and hurrying to find Huang Gai as soon as possible.

That was Marshal Yu Jin for you, he never feared death, almost like he surrendered to his fate, he wasn't going to fight it, he wanted to leave peacefully, but then again maybe he gave up too early, welcomed death without holding it back or questioning if this was it, or whether he was going to give himself another chance.

As for Ping, he had managed to switch between hating him and respecting him at least ten times in the past few days, however he did stick to his promise, he came back for the commander, and on the way home both were lying as still as a rock on the floor of the helicopter.

"Ping…" Yu Jin called his tone sounding as though was leaving earth.

"Yes commander?"

"Just so you know I hate you" Yu Jin declared.

Ping sighed loudly with his eyes closed. "Marshal…"

"Yes?" Yu Jin replied.

"You're still breathing?" Guan Ping asked sarcastically.

"When we return to camp, I'm gonna knock some sense into you, teach you how to speak to your superiors like that" Yu Jin scoffed.

"When we return to camp, I'm going to reassign" Guan Ping snarled.

"If you don't shut up I'm gonna kick you off this helicopter" Yu Jin yelled.

"Which leg will you be using sir?" Guan Ping chuckled, but the smile wiped off when he received and elbow to the face.

"My arms are still in good shape you know…"

And so they never returned to that misfortune place again, their months of recovery were long but this was just the beginning.

* * *

The END!

 **Like it? Follow and favourite ^-^, More chapters to come soon!**

 **Let me know what you think of the characters, setting, and what's going on, points to improve and what you want to see more of in the reviews!**

 **Chapter 5 will begin as a continuation of this chapter then it will move into 2 years later, the continuation of the team alpha chapter and what happened after the explosion**

 **Also I think I'm accidentally starting to ship these two *cries* What have I done :_(((((**

 **Don't worry Dunny, we'll figure something out D:**

 **Till next time! Ciao! ^-^**


	5. Build and Destroy

AN: Hi all! First of all I wanna say a big thank you to everyone who supports me! You lil mustard jars make me happy I could just squeeze your cheeks ^.^

Change of plans! This chapter ended up being just the continuation of the previous chapter, and I felt that its best to give the team alpha continuation on its own on the next chpter or the one after. Sorry for taking long I'm such a snail *sobs* I started university this year so I don't much time to write but I'll keep updating as much as I can!

Also a few of you have asked me about future events and if I was going to change certain things, the thing is I have already decided on the whole story from beginning to end, so I've already planned what's going to happen, the usually only make minor changes if certain things don't flow but the plot has already been decided before I begun writing. Anyway enjoy! :D

* * *

Chapter 5: Build and Destroy

* * *

 _In the year 2053 – Shanghai, China_

* * *

Yu Jin hopped using the assistance of his crutches to reach Dun's bed, he quickly rested them on the side of the bed, and jumped up onto it.

Xiahou Dun raised a brow as to what he was doing. It seemed that the Marshal had adjusted well to his injury, not letting it come in his way, he still did everything the same. No one would expect less from the commander regardless.

Yu Jin looked him in the face and turned away, as he adjusted himself into the bed spreading the blanket to cover his own legs too.

"You come to see me, yet you won't ask how I am?" Xiahou Dun stared irritated.

"You look fine to me" Yu Jin responded, looking back at him with no expression.

"Where's Ping?" Dun asked.

"I gave him a week leave" Yu Jin informed, resting his head back against the bed head board.

"Why'd you shoot him?" Xiahou Dun asked not sounding angry at all.

Yu Jin hesitated as though he couldn't find an answer. "News in this camp spreads quickly" He smirked mockingly.

"You waited for me to be gone to kill him" Xiahou Dun's question sounded like a statement.

"If I wanted to kill him I wouldn't have gone back for him" Yu Jin attempted to justify.

"Why'd you go back for him? Don't blame your conscience or guilt, I know you too well" Xiahou Dun pointed out.

Yu Jin smirked for a second and then his lips returned to their natural state. " I don't know" He replied casually.

"What do you want from him?" Xiahou Dun questioned defensively.

Yu Jin chuckled mockingly. "Are you trying to imply I have feelings for him?" He burst into laughter, but Dun's face remained unchanged confirming the statement. Yu Jin rolled his eyes. "That's ridiculous, come on Ping?" Yu Jin stared back at him emphasizing the falseness of that fact, and although Dun wasn't convinced he chose to look away, forfeiting from the staring battle.

"The world isn't all black or white you know; it's not either you or him." Yu Jin explained more seriously. "Besides…" He paused. "I'd tell you if I did" He turned away, throwing the blanket off, he reached for his crutches.

Xiahou Dun said nothing as he watched him hop to the door.

"Hurry up and get out of that bed, your soldier's need you" Yu Jin told before he left. But Dun knew what he really intended to say.

* * *

 _I battled it for as long as I remember. It's been at least 10 years since the tower incident. I couldn't recall all of it, but some of it was vivid in my memory._

 _I still recalled the faded calls of the crowd; I wasn't able to hear my own thoughts. I was scared but I was hopeless. Then he came…_

 _Everyone else was scared of what I could have done._

 _He and I were the only ones who knew I couldn't have done it._

 _I only recalled the sound of his voice and nothing else at all; his features were blurred in my mind._

 _He called me a coward back then. I asked him why he knew I wouldn't do it._

 _But he only called me a coward again and gave no reply._

 _Nine years later I joined the army against my father's will._

 _I no longer wanted to be a coward, but in a different way._

 _But if I was to look at myself now and then, I hadn't done much in overcoming what scared me._

 _I was between fighting in an army and fighting myself and low self esteem._

 _About a year ago I told myself if I was to meet him again I'd tell him I'm not that weak coward anymore. But that's exactly what I still am._

 _Maybe I wanted to thank Yu Jin._

 _Death was close enough for me to know I didn't want it; I didn't want to be this weak person anymore, I no longer wanted anyone to look down on me, especially Yu Jin._

 _But maybe I wanted to prove myself to me more than anyone else._

The sound of laughing and chattering was faded at first, but that was only when Guan Ping's thoughts were louder than his surroundings. He let off a loud sigh when he realised he had let his mind wander again.

Guan Suo rushed towards him with Yinping chasing after him. The sight of his siblings was enough to draw a smile on his face. He closed his eyes however when Suo almost landed on top of him, but when he opened his eyes again he had only made space for himself next to him. Suo laughed at him, and Yinping quickly reached for another seat pulling it closer to the two and sat down.

"How's your wound?" Guan Suo asked.

"I'm feeling better" He placed his hand on it, as though it brought back a bad memory.

"Can we see it, pleaseeee" Yinping begged.

"Why do you wanna see it?" Guan Ping raised his brows to the strange request.

"Come on, just a small peek" Guan Suo smiled.

Guan Ping sighed not being able to say no to his younger siblings, but as he lifted his shirt to show them his injury, he couldn't help but to notice how nice it is to see smiling faces for a change, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't sick of Yu Jin and Dun's frowning mug's, oh especially Yu Jin's.

"Wow!" Suo exclaimed making a face at how horrible it looked.

Yinping turned her eyes away not being able to stare for longer. "Okay put it away!" She complained.

Guan Ping smiled as he fixed his shirt. "See nothing to see"

"Oh oh, tell us about your trip to Africa!" Yinping urged.

"Trip…" Ping mumbled.

"Yeah what happened? Did you kill anyone?" Suo adjusted himself to listen.

Ping furrowed his brows at how innocent his brother and sister were, but then again he would have been fascinated if someone else was telling the story.

A while later while the two listened, and Guan Yu had come out to the field were their chairs were, he opened the tap to wash his hands from soil. Guan Xing followed handing him a towel, and grabbed a chair to join the rest, till Ping's story caught his attention. "Your commander shot you?" Guan Xing exclaimed.

Guan Yu shot up, walking closer to his children. "What have you done that made your commander shoot you?"

"Nothing father… I don't know why he did it, he left me to die then he came back for me" Guan Ping shrugged.

Guan Yu furrowed his brows in confusion. "What's his name this commander of yours?" He asked.

"He's the Marshal, father" Guan Ping informed, not bothering to mention his name since his father wouldn't know him anyway.

"How did you get involved with the Marshal?" Guan Yu demanded to know.

"I didn't, the commanding colonel of my faction signed me up to go on a scout mission with him, the Marshal didn't want me there, but the commander in chief refused to replace me" Guan Ping explained.

His siblings stared at each other in confusion as they didn't know much about what he was talking about.

"Why did your commanding colonel choose you? You're still an officer cadet?" His father asked, his questions were beginning to sound like an interview.

Guan Ping swallowed hard as though he was clearing his throat to prepare to lie. "I don't know" He replied, turning his eyes away from his father's face, and pretending that his wound was suddenly hurting.

"I'll go make lunch" Guan Yu announced, his tone of voice sounded angry, as though he knew Ping was hiding something.

It was only then that Guan Ping wondered to himself how his father knew so much about how the army worked for a farmer.

* * *

"Cancel his vacation" Xiahou Dun pleaded.

Yu Jin sighed in annoyance. "Do you have no one else to bother Colonel?" He resumed to look through his paper work.

Xiahou Dun stomped over to his desk, snatching the papers from in front of him. "I said cancel it"

Yu Ji reached for his draw pulling out a pistol. "You're really starting to piss me off"

Dun threw the papers back onto the desk angrily.

"What? Suddenly you can't live without him" Yu Jin mocked sarcastically. He put the gun down and fixed his papers neatly and resumed to read through them.

Dun said nothing, but continued to walk back and forth. Then he announced his departure with a loud huff and marched out of the Marshal's tent.

Yu Jin looked up from his papers; he rested his chin on his palm, as he glanced around his tent. Rolling his eyes he lifted the telephone dialling the number for the leave's office.

"This is the soldier services office how can we help you?"

"This is Field Marshal, Commander Yu Jin, cancel officer cadet 3796's leave, and request an immediate call for duty"

"Right away sir, and other orders sir?"

"No" Yu Jin put down the speakers, continuing to see through his papers.

* * *

Guan Ping threw his things into his bag irritated. He mumbled to himself as he packed while his siblings stood at the doorway looking disheartened.

"But it hasn't even been a week…" Yinping moaned.

Suo and Xing exchanged glances not knowing what to say.

"This isn't fair!" Yinping yelled.

Guan Ping paused his packing letting off a heavy sigh. He opened his arms and Yinping ran to embrace him.

"We hardly get to see you" She frowned.

"I know…" Guan Ping held her face, placing a kiss on her head.

"Hey don't worry Yinping, soon we'll sign up too" Suo patted her head.

"Yeah, and you'll get to see me more" Guan Ping tried to smile.

"Hmmm" She smiled lightly.

"Oh come on!" Guan Suo gave her a light punch to the face.

Her mouth fell open and Suo rushed to hide behind Xing before she could get him back, and without realising the frowns turned back to smiles again.

Ping smiled contently as he zipped up his bag. He walked out the door, patting Xing on the head as he passed him, but Xing suddenly hugged him and Ping was surprised by the action. Suo and Yinping smiled to each other and quickly ran to join. "Group hug!" Yinping announced.

On the way out, Guan Ping watched them all wave at him as he made his way out of the farm. He was tempted to hug them all again, especially Guan Yu, but then again they didn't have that sort of father and son relationship, but he wanted to let him know he'd miss him.

Instead he continued to walk not turning back again; slowly letting them fade behind him.

It would be a long walk to the city from where they lived, and no method's of transport. He'd have to hurry if he wanted to make it in time for the train. The military camp was located close to the airport somewhere on a barren land and close to the sea. It was quite peaceful for a camp but its location made it perfect for training soldiers. The whole journey Guan Ping was lost in thought as he watched the scenery zoom past him. He thought about what he wanted and how he'd get it. Either way he wasn't internally ready to face it all again. He was still facing nightmares every now and then about the things he saw in the Central African Republic. The memories were worst than his wound. The bloodshed, the sound of aircrafts and gunfire…

He hadn't felt as though he forgave Yu Jin, he had saved him, but every time he remembered the girl between the rubble he wanted to hate him again. And if he had planned to he no longer did.

Who else would be behind the cancellation of his leave? It was more than just his vacation or healing time lost.

It was the little time he never got to enjoy around his small world.

 _Yinping, Suo, Xing, father…_

* * *

Upon arriving at camp, Guan Ping was planted into Yu Jin's tent early in the morning.

"Reporting for duty" Guan Ping gave the most unenthusiastic salutation he had given in his both years in the army.

Yu Jin lifted his head from his computer, picking up a clipboard and holding it out to him. Guan Ping raised his brows wondering what it could be, he walked closer taking it off the commander.

The page read "Report to military discipline office"

Guan Ping's eyes widened. But when he tried to gain an explanation, Yu Jin waved his hand ushering for him to leave.

He quickly made his way over to the office, only finding himself at the end of a very long queue of regulation offenders.

A commanding officer walked down the line calling names.

"Guan Ping!" Sima Yi yelled.

"Yes sir" Guan Ping swallowed hard.

"Now that all of you idiots have arrived, time to assign you your duties… follow me" The discipline officer announced.

"Wait… Sir" Guan Ping quietly called him.

Sima Yi walked closer to him. "Yes? What do you want?"

"Can I just check why I'm here?" Guan Ping asked politely.

"Hmmm let's see, what's your number?" He asked as his eyes darted down his clipboard of names.

"3796 sir" Guan Ping anticipated his reply.

"Ah! Officer cadet Guan Ping, you are on a 28 day field punishment detention for disrespecting and disobeying your commanding officer while on duty" He informed.

Guan Ping stared at him bewilderedly, Yu Jin was pretty serious about this military discipline thing.

"Now don't bother me with any more of your ridiculous questions, its funny how you idiots like to act misunderstood and accused when you're brought for corrective training. If you impudents avoided making offences as much as you avoided your chores I wouldn't be here every morning exhausting myself barking at you. Now let's get moving the day has only begun" The short officer led the line of soldiers who all looked just as annoyed at the scolding.

Guan Ping followed slowly, his face still stuck in bewilderment, he wasn't sure which part to be shocked about, the 28 days or what was coming.

During the day the soldiers were all occupied with their assigned duties, Guan Ping found himself with sore hands from peeling a thousand potatoes. Then after that he was assigned to clean store rooms from rodents and bugs, then to do the laundry of about a good 600 bed sets including covers, bed sheets and blankets. Then before the evening he was sent to clean out the camp grounds in a forest nearby to ensure there was no litter or mess for upcoming training scouts.

Come the evening … he was scrubbing the floors of one of the assembly halls, he pushed the sponge back and forth making no effort to work faster.

Some of the other soldiers washed the windows and others were repainting tainted walls.

" I want those windows brighter than your dull and miserable selves!" The little man commanded as the cadets sprayed and rubbed the glass from the top of their ladders.

"Psst… hey" Came a call from Guan Ping's left, but he was in no mood to turn around. "Hey Guan Ping!"

Guan Ping furrowed his brows before turning around to the nuisance attempting to get his attention. "Gan Ning?"

"How's it going?" Gan Ning laughed struggling to take any of this seriously.

"God, Gan Ning, I haven't seen you for almost a year now, and when I see you I meet you in the same place" He was surprised to see nothing had changed over seven months.

Gan Ning chuckled. "Why are you here? Which commander did you disobey" He continued to giggle.

"Marshal Yu Jin" Guan Ping made a face as he uttered his name.

"What?!" Gan Ning raised his brows surprised how someone like Ping dared, but that was only due to Yu Jin's infamous reputation as commander. Up close Ping failed to find him that scary, but little did he know the Marshal meant it when he said he'd show him when they got back to camp. The whole vacation thing seemed too lenient, which is not one of the commander's common traits. "28 days huh? I must admit you've beat my record, but don't worry I'll visit you so you don't get lonely" He mocked as though he was sure he'd be in trouble before it even happened.

Guan Ping's face fell stern failing to find him amusing. "Why are you here anyway?"

"Got into a fight with that lanky ass over there, I don't even deserve to be here, he started it" Gan Ning shrugged.

Guan Ping looked up to find who he was referring too, only to find Ling Tong staring at them. Guan Ping gave him an awkward smile and turned away. "So you're only in detention for a day" He confirmed resuming to scrub.

"Are you really cleaning? Don't tell me you're scared of him? Have you seen the size of him?" Gan Ning mocked.

Guan Ping smiled, as Sima Yi's height was hard to not find funny, he was rather short for an officer, but he sure had a big mouth.

"You!" Sima Yi yelled.

Gan Ning turned around as though his guilty conscience had told him he meant him.

"I am sick of seeing your face you moron, when are you going to learn?! Get up and face that wall" Sima Yi shrieked.

Gan Ning complied biting his lip as he made his way to the wall to hold back the laugh.

"You're on an extra 5 hour night guard duty!, As for you, scrub if you value your life" He kicked over the bucket.

Guan Ping watched the water spread slowly as though he'd lost hope in humanity.

"Sir… can I get-" Guan Ping attempted to speak but Sima Yi interrupted him already knowing what he was going to say. "No you can't, use your shirt if you have to, I want that floor dry and shinier than your dull future" He ordered. Even though Sima Yi didn't yell his rude tone sounded threatening enough to get the rest of them to polish up faster.

By night both Ning and Ping were too exhausted to be on guard duty. However Ping chose to take trips around the post to keep himself awake, but when he returned Gan Ning was fast asleep. Guan Ping shoved him off the wall where he was leaning.

"Huh what? Where?" Gan Ning woke up startled.

"Do you want to get us in more trouble?" Guan Ping glared at him

"What did I do? I'm guarding" Gan Ning insisted.

"No you're not, you're sleeping" Guan Ping folded his arms annoyedly.

"I'm awake" Gan Ning yawned unbothered.

"Just take a walk will you" Guan Ping sighed pushing him to get into the guard post.

"Do I have to?" Gan Ning complained.

Guan Ping stared at him.

"Okay okay, fine" He picked up his gun and began to stroll.

"Don't forget you have another 5 hours on your own!" Guan Ping reminded and let off a heavy sigh.

"Yeah whatever" Gan Ning continued to walk with his eyes closed.

It was a quite night, not particularly cold but the breeze was satisfying. Guan Ping gazed at the dark skies. There was no stars, just empty darkness but the moon lit up everything within its reach…

Ping had found that after all that time had passed he didn't take a minute to think about Dun, almost as though he forgot about him; it wasn't that he didn't care. When he crossed his mind he wondered to himself how he'd been.

Surely if you loved someone you wouldn't forget them that easily? But then again they say out of sight out of mind. Not thinking about him made things better, he was at more peace then he last remembered. But he himself didn't know if he missed him… Or maybe knowing that no similar feelings would cross Xiahou Dun made him refuse to admit it to himself.

He knew Dun wasn't best for him, and there was more he needed to keep his focus on…

* * *

The next day he made sure to wake up early for the formation regardless of how tired he was.

The soldiers were all lined up awaiting orders. Yu Jin limped over with a folded chair with him with no sign of his crutches.

Seeing that immediately made Ping's heart sink. Till now and even knowing Yu Jin wouldn't have done such a thing and presuming it was an accident, he still felt as though Yu Jin took that bullet to protect him.

It wasn't seeing him in pain that made him feel for him and it wasn't even pity. He just had so much respect for him to not want to see him like that. And it wasn't like Yu Jin displayed any sign of weakness but as humans we learn to empathise with the sick and hurt in a way that makes us see them as less or needing of our support. And maybe it was the label we give vulnerability but in no one's eyes Yu Jin was Yu Jin.

Beyond the outside and what mattered the Marshal refused to use his crutches most the time and attempted to walk regardless of his injury.

In a way it was similar to Xiahou Dun losing his eye, but it differed as he'd lost that forever. No one spoke about it, and Ping hadn't known him before then. But a few years back at camp no one was as familiar with the memory as much as Dun was. He was a captain before Yu Jin had reached his current rank, and once Yu Jin was assigned to be the field Marshal he promoted him to be a Colonel. Many unhappy voices were heard as many of the older veterans had been in the army for longer than the two and if Yu Jin had gotten there with his efforts they sure didn't believe Dun deserved to be equal to them, purely as he was seen as nothing but his blindness.

Naturally like any state of hierarchy within the ranks alliances were formed, only Yu Jin and Dun being the smallest alliance, and even though Dun was naturally kind to the soldiers of any rank, being on Yu Jin's side was enough to put him on the blacklist. Many however weren't aware that Xiahou Dun was the cousin to the commanding chief of the army. They'd at least pay him more respect if they knew, but it was Dun who choose to keep it a secret when he signed up wanting to achieve with his efforts and nothing else.

As for Marshal Yu Jin though he was hated by most he himself knew the CEO was on his side if something was bound to happen, at least for Dun's sake cause they'd be in it together. The CEO favoured Yu Jin for many reasons. Though he was despicable, he was man of his word and even though he was strict and harsh he knew how to get the job done, seeing he'd be the only one fit to be the field Marshal, Yu Jin was only 22 when he made the big jump from Major to Marshal.

Originally Yu Jin and Dun had joined the army as officer cadets together, there was more than just years of friendship, eventually Yu Jin surpassed him, and later they fell in love and that was when it all fell apart, maybe loving one another was the basis of destroying what they had. In the end and now the two had drifted and learned to look out for one another from a distance.

 _Friends are more valuable than lovers._

And as for Guan Ping he had followed in Xiahou Dun's footsteps. Many of the officer cadets surpassing him in ability had tried to find an explanation for why he was chosen and not them. If it meant making judgements yes! We as people try to explain everything without caring at the expense of who or what.

Guan Ping had managed to get himself noticed by pretty much everyone in the camp and that was not what he intended. Judgements had been made that the boy who's bad at everything was being favoured by his commanders. Some said he'd probably bribed his officials but those who knew his background denied the falseness of that statement, then others related it to sexual favours. Though not often spoken about it wasn't an unusual thing in the camp.

Guan Ping hadn't known what rumours had circulated about him, Yu Jin had heard and so had Dun but both of them refused to address it. It wasn't as simple as gathering everyone and declaring that they hadn't slept with him, who would believe that anyway. Truth of the matter Dun chose him because he liked him and that was it. But that wouldn't have been any easier to explain.

Just like many other things it was up to time to make everyone forget or leave it be. As for Guan Ping, he was busy bettering himself to be worthy of the company of his superiors.

* * *

Marshal Yu Jin fixed his chair, while the formation saluted their commander."Reporting for duty!"

He got up and walked closer to them limping in the process. "Come on, knees to chest, ten laps, go!" He clapped, and the soldiers complied immediately, he was unusually calm that morning.

He paused before reaching to his chair when he glanced Ping amongst the formation. "Guan Ping!"

Guan Ping jogged back wondering what he wanted from him. "Yes sir"

"You're on a 28 day detention, you're prohibited to take part in military training, report to the discipline office" He told him, pointing for him to leave.

Guan Ping looked at him disheartened, before walking away, he promised himself to improve but being forbidden to take part in training only meant he'd fall more behind.

"Guan Ping…" Yu Jin called him again.

Guan Ping turned around slowly.

"You forgot to salute your commander" He reminded.

Guan Ping saluted sharply but quietly "Yes sir"

"You're dismissed" Yu Jin ushered for him to leave, and turned to reach for his chair.

* * *

Guan Ping carried the crates of guns to the van, the only thought going through his head was 26 more days of boredom and chores. It was more daunting to know he wasn't going to take part in any training or military activities.

"Hey!" Gan Ning placed a crate next to the one Guan Ping put down.

Guan Ping looked at him surprised.

"I fell asleep on guard duty" Gan Ning tried to explain without laughing but his mouth automatically curved into a smile.

Guan Ping shook his head speechlessly at how pathetic Gan Ning was, but at least it was reassuring he'd keep him company for most of his detention, so there's good in everything.

During the month of detention Guan Ping had gotten beyond bored of the chores and duties he'd been assigned. Hearing that some of the other soldiers had been assigned to clean then latrines he'd been grateful, for 25 of those days anyway, he eventually got his turn.

After it was over the next day fell on a break day where everyone around the camp got to slack off till their hearts content. This was good news for Ping to rest and prepare himself to work harder when military training begins again.

Instead of doing something useful with his time he decided to bother Yu Jin. Once given the permission to enter the commander's tent, he walked in quietly.

"What do you want?" The Marshal asked.

Guan Ping shrugged his shoulders walking closer to the desk.

"Well then leave, I have things to do" Yu Jin dismissed.

However Ping sat down and begun to fidget with the pens on the desk.

"Go do something useful with your time, join the rest of your faction" Yu Jin put down the papers irriatedly.

Guan Ping took a long pause before he spoke. "They don't want me around" He admitted, glancing up to look at Yu Jin but their eyes only met for a second before Ping looked away again.

Yu Jin paused as though he thought before he spoke for once. "Well what makes you think I do?" He asked, presumably the thinking had led to nowhere.

"I don't" Guan Ping bit his bottom lip, pulling out the pens from their pot and matching their lids correctly.

Yu Jin snatched the pot from front of him. "Leave. It." He commanded, putting the pot out for Ping to put the pens back.

"I was fixing them for you" He justified.

"Go bother someone else" Yu Jin rolled his eyes, putting the pot down and returning to look at his papers. "Here… Sign this" He handed him a sheet.

"What is it?" Guan Ping asked, the paper's title read 'S.O.A.D- Spec Ops Army Division'

"It's a military special ops organization" Yu Jin informed trying to remain calm although it was clear that he was in a bad mood.

"I get to be part of it?" Guan Ping's eyes lit up.

"You were already part of it 8 months ago genius" Yu Jin snatched the paper back.

"How?" Guan Ping leaned over the desk and quickly scribbled a signature.

Yu Jin shoved his hand in his face, pushing him back off the desk. "Do you think the army casually go on special operation missions?"

Guan Ping shrugged his shoulders. "How would I know?"

Yu Jin rolled his eyes irritated. "You're dismissed, you may leave."

Guan Ping stood up quickly adding another lid on a red pen. But Yu Jin had no reaction to his childishness.

Walking around the desk he piled some papers on the side neatly. "I wanted to ask you…"

Yu Jin slapped his hand. "Keep your hands off my desk" He ordered threateningly.

Guan Ping put his hands in his pockets trying his best not to fidget with everything he came across. "Can you transfer me to Colonel Dun's faction…Please"

"Is this what it's about?" Yu Jin looked up at him.

Guan Ping held his breath anticipating his reply.

"No… Forget it" He sat back in his chair folding his arms.

"Commander please, you know I don't belong in your elite unit" Guan Ping got onto his knees attempting to gain sympathy.

"Get off the floor" Yu Jin turned his face the other way.

"Please commander I promise I'll work hard!" Guan Ping continued to plead.

"Why don't you work hard now" Yu Jin stood with his decision firmly.

"No matter how hard I work I'll never belong in your elite unit and you know that" Guan Ping argued.

"If you moved your legs and arms as much as you moved your mouth maybe you'd get somewhere" Yu Jin rolled his eyes.

"Why do you insist on keeping me in your faction when you know I'm not of any use to you?" Guan Ping continued to argue hoping it would lead somewhere. "Can I at least know why?"

"Because I said so, now get off the floor and get out" Yu Jin commanded.

Guan Ping produced a loud grunt to express his annoyance. Before Yu Jin could scold him Xiahou Dun walked into the tent with an overweight pit bull in his arms.

Yu Jin shot up from his seat "No no no, don't you dare bring that thing in here, get it out now" Yu Jin demanded but the commander ignored him walking around the desk.

"What are you doing?" The one eyed man raised his brows addressing Ping, then continued to place the dog in Yu Jin's arms, but the Marshal quickly dropped him on the floor disgustedly.

"Take your filthy mutt out of my room" Yu Jin yelled climbing onto his chair to avoid the fat dog.

Guan Ping watched blankly.

"He's not mine, yours now" Xiahou Dun dusted his hands. "You get off the floor" He told Ping, grabbing his arm to pull him up.

Guan Ping smiled not able to hide that he was happy to see him. "Where did you get it from?" Ping asked, while gazing at him like he missed him.

"From the animal shelter, he was owned by and elderly couple and they both passed away" Xiahou Dun explained, smiling when he noticed the way Ping looked at him.

"And what makes you think I want it?" Yu Jin looked at him frustrated. "Am I an adoption centre for abandoned animals?!"

"I figured that's the only thing that'll be able to put up with you" Xiahou Dun folded his arms as though he was content with himself.

Ping bit his lip to hold back the laugh.

"Well my job's done here" Dun announced quickly taking his leave.

Yu Jin stared at the dog annoyed, as it attempted to climb his chair to lick him. "No no, bad dog, no licking no!"

Guan Ping giggled at the sight of his commander. "Here boy" He called the dog over; the pit bull happily came to him wagging his tail.

Yu Jin face palmed wondering what more to expect today. Just when he thought it was safe to leave his throne, he put his feet down, but the dog quickly raced to him to lick him. "Ugh" Yu Jin grunted in disgust "Take this thing out of here" He told him, leaving his tent to find Dun presumably.

Guan Ping nodded but still remained in the tent playing with the dog.

A while later Yu Jin returned to find them both in his tent. He sighed slowly "I thought I told you" Before Yu Jin could carry on scolding, the dog rushed to him upon hearing his voice "Ugh no! Bad mutt, put your tongue away, no!" He shouted.

The overweight canine went down whimpering guiltily. "Good dog! No licking" Yu Jin reminded.

"Dog's do that when they love you" Guan Ping crawled after him to pet him.

"Ping do you have a brother?" Yu Jin asked calmly.

"Yeah, two of them…Why?" He asked wondering why Yu Jin would care to know.

"Well now you have three…" Yu Jin announced.

Guan Ping looked at him confused of what he was talking about.

"You know what you have in common, you both don't know when to get lost" He explained.

But Ping still looked at him in confusion.

Yu Jin sighed. "Take your brother and get out of my face, give that thing a bath or something"

"The dog's not my brother" Guan Ping snapped, attempting to pick the dog up, but he was too heavy for him. "Okay never mind, we'll walk, come on buddy, he doesn't want us here"

Yu Jin let out a sigh of relief; he sat down on his chair. "As if one dog wasn't enough" He mumbled to himself. He looked around the room exhaling slowly, and then his eyes shifted to the calendar on the desk. He pushed his hair back from his face "Getting old" he sighed.

* * *

There was only two months left till the formation of official scout teams and many of the soldiers were doubling their efforts. Usually not many of the factions made it into the top teams as Yu Jin's elite unit took all the places. Guan Ping more than anyone wanted a chance to be part of one of the units. The units were named Zero, Yankee, X-Ray, Whiskey, Victor, Uniform, Tango, Snake, Raptors, Quebec, Panthers, Omega, Nova, Mayfly, Lima, Kilo, Juliette, Ibis, Harbour, Gravitation, Foxtrot, Echo, Delta, Charlie, Bravo and Alpha. The good thing was the teams were made up of different abilities to support one another, so there was no superior team except zero which completely consisted of elites. Those not chosen in any team still remain in their factions as soldiers but most would want to be part of spec operations so the test was widely anticipated.

* * *

That same night an unexpected event had happened.

"You don't know how much I've missed this" Xiahou Dun leaned closer locking his lips with Yu Jin. Yu Jin returned the kiss more passionately attempting to hold as long as he could before they both needed to pause for breath. Dun slipped his hand into his hair to bring him close again for another one and Yu Jin tilted his head to allow himself more access, licking Dun's bottom lip and then lightly biting it.

The one eyed man allowed his hands to explore his partner's muscles, caressing his skin and slowly tracing around from the top of his spine to reach his lower back. Yu Jin leaned for his neck sucking the tender skin and moved his right hand across Dun's chest caressing his muscular build in a constant rhythm. Dun allowed himself to enjoy it as he felt Yu Jin's warm breath against his neck.

Soon enough Yu Jin had wrapped Dun's legs around his waist and begun. They started off slow, Yu Jin was more affectionate than his usual self. He drew two of his fingers to his mouth and licked them slowly, and then reached to rub Dun's entrance; he didn't take long before he placed his fingers in to prepare him. Dun let out quite moans of pleasure sitting back and allowing the Marshal to do what he pleased. There was lots of tension for both to relieve themselves, along with pent up emotions and feverish desperation to fuel their lust for one another.

Inserting a third then a fourth, Yu Jin fastened his pace and Dun was becoming more eager for the foreplay to end. Once he was done he rubbed his member around it to tease Dun who was now desperate for him. "Quit that will you" The one eyed man complained. His face was red and his body was sweating from heat. Yu Jin smirked, and inserted it into him slowly. He begun with slow strokes knowing Dun would need a while to adjust. He announced he'd go further, and Dun wrapped his arms around him to feel him against him. Yu Jin stuck to his rhythm and gradually fastened his pace till the other was gasping loudly below him. Close to release the two men wrapped around each other both expressing their pleasure. Yu Jin felt the sensation filling him around the climax and Dun was satisfied with the love making session. The two had clumsily cuddled that night the same way they had done back in their days.

Dun was careless about hiding the way he felt that night, even once they were done he continued to touch him where he pleased, and Yu Jin allowed him too, in fact he looked satisfied with the connection.

"I missed you…" Dun admitted quietly.

"Me too…" Yu Jin confessed even quieter, he flicked Dun's hair out of his face and pulled the cover over them. The two lay between the sheets only communicating through glances. Yu Jin shifted himself so that half his chest was resting on him; he wrapped his arm around his neck and dug his face into his shoulder. "Only for one night" He whispered…

The next morning Yu Jin was awaken by a quiet voice calling. "Commander…" He sat up quickly shocked to see Ping sitting with the dog by the door as though he was waiting for him.

"Who gave you the permission to walk into my room?" Yu Jin demanded to know adjusting himself to sit in a way that he could hide the sleeping Dun behind him.

"Sir you told me to wake you up if you don't wake up on your own" Guan Ping reminded, his facial expression was neutral as though he hadn't seen anything.

"Right…" Yu Jin flashed his brows not knowing what else to say to get rid of him, but to make matters worse Dun shot up from next to him "Ping!" He too had no explanation or justification for what happened, but Ping still remained unphased, walking closer to the two he picked their clothes up of the floor and placed them into Yu Jin's hands.

"You're late for the formation" He informed and walked away. That moment Yu Jin wished the earth had swallowed him from embarrassment.

"Come on boy" Ping called, and the dog looked at Yu Jin and then Ping and walked out the door following the latter.

"Shit!" Yu Jin cursed, and Dun just remained speechless next to him.

The two hurried to get dressed and Yu Jin was quieter than his usual self while giving out instructions. He noticed Ping refusing to look at him during the whole regime. It wasn't like Yu Jin to feel embarrassed about something, but it was Ping, and he never wished for him to see him like that.

During the break Dun had called Ping to his tent immediately.

"Yes sir?" Guan Ping gave a dull response, and what worried Dun more was that he didn't look upset.

Dun sprung up from his chair walking close to him… "About this morning, I don't want you to"

Guan Ping interrupted him before he could continue "Save your excuses commander, there's nothing to explain" He shrugged.

The one eyed man placed his hands on his shoulders but Ping turned his face away. "Listen… I know there's nothing in this world that's gonna make you believe me, and I'm not going to lie to you, but I'm sorry, I didn't mean for anything"

Guan Ping pushed his hands off him. "Do I look upset to you?"

"You really don't care" Dun pointed out almost disappointed, he'd never seen him act so cold towards him and it worried him.

Ping shook his head in response to his question.

"I thought I meant something to you…" The one eyed man stated quietly.

"I thought the same for a long time till today…" Ping replied looking down to the floor.

Xiahou Dun stared at him for minute, before pulling him close his chest and wrapping his arms around him, but the youth didn't return his hug. "I swear to you, I have no feelings for him-I"

"Do you always sleep with people you don't have feelings for?" Guan Ping shoved him off him. "Reporting for duty sir" He saluted and walked away quickly.

Dun closed his visible eye; slipping his hand into his hair he clenched it tightly. Even if Ping wasn't upset he felt as though he'd messed up badly.

* * *

Later that day Ping was stood by a window enjoying the cold breeze, he quietly watched the clouds. Then Yu Jin came and stood next to him chugging down a bottle of alcohol.

"You're not gonna cry?" Yu Jin asked.

"No… Why would I cry?" Guan Ping turned to him slowly.

Yu Jin shook his head. "You're not upset?"

"No… Disappointed" Guan Ping explained, noticing the bottle in Yu Jin's hand, he turned back to look out the window.

"Man up" Yu Jin shoved him but Ping had no reaction.

"You love him?" He asked.

Yu Jin shook his head without needing to even think about it.

"Dun doesn't know what he wants" Yu Jin mentioned looking out of the window and inhaling the cold air slowly.

"I feel like my whole life I've accomplished nothing…" Guan Ping admitted.

"What're you talking about?" Yu Jin turned to him try to comprehend the change of topic.

Guan Ping grabbed the green bottle out his hand and took a sip… "I just feel like I've never done anything in my life… You ever felt like that?"

Yu Jin shrugged taking his drink back.

Guan Ping rested his head against the wall. "Forget it…" He told him quietly.

Yu Jin didn't say much after, but he stayed with him to watch the clouds till his drink was finished, Ping didn't know what to take by it, but he liked him there even if he didn't have much to say. …..

"Don't think about anything else, just focus, eyes on your target, and shoot when you're ready" Yu Jin instructed.

Guan Ping nodded, and aimed his firearm at the cardboard cut out, but before he could shoot Dun called him. "Ping!"

"He's in the middle of training you can talk to him later" Yu Jin scolded.

But the one eyed man ignored him, taking Ping by the arm and pulling him to the side. "What?" Guan Ping huffed.

"Can we talk?" Xiahou Dun requested.

Ping pulled his arm out his grasp and sighed. "Commander I'm not mad at you, isn't that what you want to hear?"

Xiahou Dun stared at him puzzled.

"Look I need space, so let me focus" Ping nodded.

"Yu Jin… You know he has feelings for you" Dun informed looking worried.

Guan Ping made a face "Commander Yu Jin?!" Guan Ping looked back at the commander who sat there impatiently waiting for him to return to his training, and looked back not even bothering to think about how ridiculous that was.

"Do you-?" Xiahou Dun questioned.

"No! Of course no! Now just go" Guan Ping walked back to the target training sand pit shaking his head at the nonsense Dun just told him.

Xiahou Dun walked back to Yu Jin. "What've you said to him?"

"What are you talking about? Get of my face" Yu Jin pushed past him to observe Ping's shooting.

"Where's the rest of your unit? Don't the rest of them need training" Dun implied.

"He asked me to help him, the rest of them know where to find me if they need me" Yu Jin explained.

"Don't you dare Yu Jin. Back off" Xiahou Dun threatened, but Yu Jin pushed him off him.

"You back off, I have no interest in him, I told you that before" Yu Jin rolled his eyes, reaching for his chair to sit down.

Dun begun to walk off.

"If you lose something because you fucked up, don't point the blame at someone else" Yu Jin folded his arms and turned back to watch Ping.

The one eyed man stood still for a moment; he couldn't explain all the mixed emotions going inside him.

 _We learn the value of things once we lose them._

But after almost forever he figured it was Ping he had feelings for and not Yu Jin, with Yu Jin it was the memories and nostalgia and that was it. As powerful as memories are, they are useless because in the end they're just memories images stuck in our minds that differ from current reality.

Later that day Yu Jin and Guan Ping had relocated to the camp grounds and Ping had been running around all day taking several fitness tests. Just as he reached the finish line after taking another lap around the woods, he collapsed to the ground to catch his breath. "How did I do?" He asked.

"Too slow" Yu Jin hanged the stop watch over him. Guan Ping let out a loud sigh of defeat and Yu Jin released the stop watch dropping it on him.

"I ran my fastest" He complained.

"You can't achieve better results in one day" Yu Jin reminded, taking a seat on a tree trunk.

Guan Ping lifted his head to study him. "Is your leg hurting?"

Yu Jin shook his head and pulled out his metal hip flask to take a sip of the drink.

"You drink a lot…" Guan Ping pointed out.

Yu Jin nodded to say he agreed. "Come on, take another lap" He instructed.

Guan Ping huffed, but quickly stood up and began to run.

Yu Jin looked around where Ping was lying down and noticed the stop watch missing. "Cheat" He mumbled before taking another sip.

* * *

A few days later Guan Ping was racing through an obstacle course around the camp ground while Yu Jin sipped away his whiskey contently.

The dark haired boy launched himself to the ground letting off a satisfied sigh. "How did I do?"

"Only better by a second…" Yu Jin threw the stop watch on him.

Guan Ping buried his face into his military jacket. "Oh god, why?! Okay can we take a break" He cried.

Yu Jin shrugged as if he was to say do as you please.

Guan Ping sat up crawling closer to him. "Marshal Do you have a wife?" He asked randomly.

"No… Why?" Yu Jin turned to him wondering why he'd ask such a random question.

"Why do you drink so much?" Ping took the hip flask out his hand.

"Boredom I guess" He claimed.

Guan Ping observed the bottle recognising it was the same one from before, he placed it back in his hands.

"Marshal…"

"Hmm?" Yu Jin looked at him through half shut eyes.

Guan Ping took a pause before quietly uttering "I might have feelings for you"

Yu Jin almost choked on his drink. "Don't even think about it! I'm probably old enough to be your dad" Yu Jin shook his head at the strangeness of that confession.

"How old are you?" Guan Ping crossed his legs.

"31" Yu Jin scoffed.

"My father's in his 40s…" Guan Ping argued.

"That's still a 10 year difference" Yu Jin shrugged.

"You know you look more" Guan Ping pointed out as he stood up, walking back to beginning of the race track.

Yu Jin shook his head at the nonsense he had heard. But upon Ping's second return, he stood up and walked towards him, taking him by the hand he pinned him against a tree and leaned really close, Guan Ping turned his face to avoid him, and bent below his arm to escape him.

"See… You don't…" Yu Jin concluded, walking back to sit on his tree trunk.

Guan Ping walked back to him slowly. "I do… You make me uncomfortable when you do that so suddenly" He explained avoiding to look at him.

"Do you want me to ask your permission?" Yu Jin questioned. "Can I kiss you?" He stood up.

Ping looked hesitant; he shook his head and walked away.

"See! You wouldn't be scared if you meant what you said" Yu Jin called out.

Guan Ping closed his eyes and continued to walk away to avoid him.

* * *

The next day as the officials walked out of a meeting with the CEO Yu Jin stopped Xiahou Dun in the hall way. "What's happened between you and Ping?" Yu Jin questioned.

"Nothing. Why?" Xiahou raised his brows confusedly.

"Have you said anything to him?" Yu Jin looked irritated.

"No… He said he needed space, why?" Xiahou Dun questioned.

"That's it?" Yu Jin looked unsatisfied with his response.

"Why has he said anything to you?" Xiahou Dun observed the commander's expression.

"Not at all, just wondering why he's acting strange" Yu Jin walked away without declaring that the conversation was over and Dun placed his hands on his hips wondering what that was all about.

* * *

Then later that day Ping had come by to the Marshal's tent to see what training he had for him. Upon seeing him he declared. "I'm gonna pretend I heard nothing yesterday"

"Why?" Guan Ping asked, causing Yu Jin to raise his brows, it was how serious Ping seemed that made him find all of it so strange.

"Both me and you know that you have feelings for Dun, so enough of this" Yu Jin snapped.

"I meant what I said" Guan Ping insisted.

"You didn't" Yu Jin huffed. "Have all the people in the world ran out? Why me"

"You're doing all these things to disprove it to yourself" Guan Ping uttered.

"You just can't like me" Yu Jin insisted.

"You're not making sense" Guan Ping looked at him confusedly.

Yu Jin got up from his seat and walked around the desk. "Come over here and do something" he instructed.

Guan Ping furrowed his brows again. "I don't think you realise how intimidating you can be" He folded his arms turning his face away.

Yu Jin walked closer to him and gave him a light punch to the shoulder. "Liar…"

Guan Ping gazed back at him with a frown, and Yu Jin rolled his eyes refusing to hear it.

Hours later he'd gotten him to carry weights and switch between push ups and press ups.

Yu Jin walked in front of him as he lifted the metal bars. "Why me?" He asked.

Ping shook his head.

"What do you want from me?" The Marshal questioned with a frustrated tone, he pressed his hands on his hips wanting an explanation.

"I don't know" Ping put down the weights.

"Dun does care about you" Yu Jin spoke randomly.

"First time I hear you speak good of him" Ping pointed out.

But Yu Jin didn't respond.

"Back in the republic, why were you so cold towards him" Ping questioned, walking up to Yu Jin.

"He knew I cared." Yu Jin confessed.

"Wouldn't you have regretted it if something really happened to him?" Guan Ping frowned.

"I never worry about him, he knows how to take care of himself" Yu Jin assured.

"Why do you try to make people hate you, I don't get it." Guan sat down on the bench.

"Love's a waste of time" Yu Jin gulped down his alcohol.

Guan Ping didn't ask any further questions as though he understood but it wasn't that.

"Nothing would have happened if I knew he still had feelings for me" Yu Jin clarified, walking over to Ping and sitting next to him. "I'm no good, stick with Dun. You're still young, what do you want with an old man anyway" Yu Jin relaxed his shoulders and his usual neutral expression returned to him.

Guan Ping paused but then said nothing. Instead he rested his head on the Marshal's shoulder and Yu Jin just sat there without a response.

After a few minutes had passed Yu Jin pushed Ping off him. He got up and walked out the training hall leaving Ping to train on his own that evening.

The two months had passed and not much had been said between the two, Ping had practiced and trained well enough to build muscle on his slim body. Now he was fully pumped and ready to take the test.

Guan Ping stood in the Marshal's tent feeling proud of his achievements. Yu Jin stood behind him; he grabbed his shoulders and gave him a hard yet satisfying massage. He then walked in front of him, grabbing his collar and ripping his shirt off, Guan Ping's face flushed red quickly and he was quick to put his arms in front of him to cover himself. But Yu Jin gave him a hard punch to the chest, and Guan Ping furrowed his brows at why his commander had to be so violent.

Yu Jin almost smiled but his mouth curved back to a straight line and though he hadn't said it, Ping knew he was satisfied with his efforts, satisfied and not happy because he's Marshal Yu Jin and nothing makes Marshal Yu Jin happy.

* * *

The END!

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 **Let me know what you think of the characters, setting, and what's going on, points to improve and what you want to see more of in the reviews!**

 **Chapter 6 will be a continuation of this chapter which is the actual games to elect the teams, the upcoming chapter will include lots of characters like Ma Chao, Zhang He, Fa Zheng, the Qiao's ect**

 **Till next time! Ciao! ^-^**

 **Hold on, I also wanted to mention I'm working on reuploading the story blood is thicker than water, as I know that was a popular one and I'm also working on a one shot called Yu Jin the sparkle fairy, so stay tuned! XD**


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